Okkusenman
by GrimMoody
Summary: The first story of my between classic and X trilogy. This part focuses mostly on Bass, who must somehow come to terms with his purpose.
1. Tragedy

I don't own Mega Man.

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Mega Man quietly opened the door.

What he saw before him was something he knew he would see eventually. It wasn't something that could be avoided or postponed. There was nothing he could do to prevent it, and that miserable fact tore him up on the inside.

Dr. Light was dying.

The hospital room was a very nice and comfortable place. It had a long window with a view of the city, and if the patient wanted to get closer to it, the controls on the bed could be used to direct the bed in that directions. There were plenty of comfortable looking chairs around, and the room itself was large and decorated sparsely with a pleasant, pale green and white color combination. While technology didn't ordinarily frighten Mega Man, the strange machines that were monitoring the doctor made him shiver.

"Dr. Light?"

The Doctor opened his eyes. Seeing Mega Man, he smiled, revealing just how many wrinkles he had built up in the years since he'd built his most famous robot. Though pale and weak, Thomas Light seemed fairly cheerful.

"Ah, Mega Man, I was wondering when you'd get here."

"I came as soon as I heard." Mega Man tried to smile. "Where's Roll?"

"She's downstairs, talking to a doctor. Really, Rock, it's not as bad as it seems."

"But...I heard you collapsed."

Dr. Light laughed a little. "I'm getting old, Mega Man, that's all. It happens to the best of us. I've been working too hard these past days, and if I had listened to Roll, maybe I wouldn't be here now. Don't be worried. The doctors here have been saying that I'll be able to come home in a few days, and then I'll just have to be careful about how much work I do. Though I'll definitely have to make sure X is stable first, then fufill that contract I had for Brooklyn Tech Inc., and then -"

"Don't even think about it, Dr. Light!" Roll scolded teasingly as she reentered the private room. "You know good and well that Auto can do all of that. Don't even think about work now. It's about time you learned to relax a little."

"I'm not dead yet, Roll." he winked. "But I guess you're right. It's about time I took that vacation I've been promising myself for the past thirty years."

Mega Man suddenly stood up. "I've...I've got to go check on...something. I heard that Bass is out there somewhere...I better make sure he's not causing any trouble. I'll be back later."

Saying a quick goodbye, Mega Man went out the door. Only when he was out of sight of the room did he allow his concern to show itself. He didn't even know if it was possible for robots to cry, but he knew it wanted to. It was almost impossible to see Dr. Light like this. Leaning against a wall, he wondered if maybe he should talk to one of the medical doctors and ask how long his creator had left to live.

He heard the heavy footsteps of a robot behind him, but he didn't have the heart to turn and look.

"Rock, what's wrong with you?" Roll said as she caught up to her brother, and this time her scolding was more serious. "We have to be cheerful for Dr. Light now more than ever. It'll only upset him to see you like this."

"How am I supposed to feel, Roll?" Mega Man said despondently. "I just...I wish it didn't have to be like this."

Roll sighed. "Humans age, Rock. It's what happens. There's nothing we can do to stop it."

"But that's the entire problem. If we start malfunctioning, we can be repaired. Dr. Light..."

Mega Man didn't finish his sentence. He just leaned against the wall, hopelessly staring at the floor.

"It's hard for me too." Roll replied sadly. "But all we can do for now is keep him comfortable. So please, try to be cheerful. Let him know that even after he's gone you're still going to be out there saving the world. He's really proud of you. Besides, in only thirty years, his mind in the computer will activate when X does. We'll see him again."

Mega Man smiled. "I know...but, well...I just hope the years go by fast."

-t-

It was a quiet day. Normally Monsteropolis was fairly crowded with tourists, being as this particular city was the birthplace of modern robotics, but this day was one of the rare days when tourism was low, and that was due to the upcoming cold days of winter. It would be a nice change for once, and it certainly was a fortunate turn of events for Dr. Wily. After all, the police were always a little more wary on the days with more tourists. Mega Man was more vigilant then as well. And while usually Dr. Wily preferred a terrified and screaming audience for his work, he knew that could wait for the time being. After all, his army had to be increased before the real terror could start.

And so, on an otherwise boring day, the sound of gleeful laugher from a crackled voice sounded in the cold air. That, and the sound of various gears grinding and screeching as five huge combat robots made their way up to the robot museum. Each one was as large as a house, and had more firepower than a division of the army.

"Ah, Ice Man," Dr. Wily said joyfully. "Isn't is so nice of the mayor to want to put all of my old creations all in the same place? It makes it so much more convenient to go and retrieve them later."

"Well, yeah." Ice Man replied. "But don't they keep all the CPUs elsewhere? Aren't we just going after a bunch of empty shells?"

"Tsk tsk. This is exactly why Elec Man is in charge of the six of you." Dr. Wily chortled as he pulled his coat more tightly around himself. "I've already discovered the location of the CPUs, and Guts Man, Elec Man, and Fire Man are recovering them now. And so we've got to make a presentation of this and distract the authorities so that they will be successful. Bomb Man, please do the honors."

"Ah, gladly." Bomb Man was always happiest when he could blow things up. He gleefully juggled a few of his smaller bombs. "Just leave it to me."

"And Cut Man, I'm sure you'd like to make sure that any security guards we encounter are...disinclined to interfere."

Cut Man laughed, snapping the large blades on his head for a reply. "I'll cut 'em down for size!"

"Alright, and Crystal Bot, would you please start things off for us?"

And even though her helmet covered most of her face, you could still see in Crystal Bot's eyes that she was very happy to be of service. And like Crystal Man, she had the distinctive crystal orbs implanted in her helmet, chest, shoulders, and boots. Her dress was a light cyan which came down to her knees and was covered by a hooded green cloak. Her auburn hair was just long enough to come below the edge of her helmet and rest on her shoulders.

At her master's command, Crystal Bot wordlessly pulled out her guitar, the crystal axe, from seemingly nowhere, and began to strum away. Loud heavy metal music poured out of the five giant robots, signalling for Bomb Man to begin and blow away the nearest wall of the robot museum. Cut Man and Ice Man charged at the surrounding buildings to create as much of a commotion as possible, and dozens of Wily's smaller, less intelligent robots began to cut into the displays of the museum and retrieve all of the robot masters therein. Dr. Wily grinned despite the cold (and despite the fact that he really didn't like heavy metal that much) and laughed, enjoying the screams and shouts that were beginning to sound out around them.

"Crystal Bot."

"Yes, Dad?" she responded contentedly as she continued to play.

Wily grinned again. She was the only one that called him "Dad", and it surprised him how much he liked it. "I am going to go back to the base. When they are finished loading the robot masters into the five Armoroids, have them convert into their aircraft form and get to the base as secretly as they can. See that they finish here quickly, and make sure that Elec Man and his group are successful."

"Will do!" Crystal Bot replied in cute, quirky tone. "I've already signalled for the Skull Capsule to come and pick you up."

And with perfect theatrical timing, Wily's small, grey-and-blue vessel landed nearby and opened for him. And as he stepped inside, Wily noticed from the corner of his eye that Mega Man was flying in on his dog Rush, then decided that it was the perfect time for a meniacal laugh and the customary wiggling of the eyebrows as the Skull Capsule closed.

"It's too late, Mega Man..."

Mega Man didn't notice the Skull Capsule, as he was too distracted by the robot masters below him. He flew in low, and with a few shots managed to stop Ice Man from turning a security guard into a popsicle.

"Alright, what are you up to?" Mega Man demanded.

"I could tell you..." Cut Man spoke up. "Or I could CUT you!"

His blades zoomed in towards the hero, but Rush flew low to the ground to dodge them. "Always with the one liners, Cut Man? If you spent half as much time trying to learn to fight as you did trying to not sound lame, you might actually be a challenge!"

Crystal Bot watched the ensuing battle as she finished her song, feeling a little left out. She wasn't a fighter, but a technician. Also, her weapons were merely the slow homing shot that could be easily dodged by someone with Mega Man's skill, and her crystal eye was horrible to aim, and more likely to hit her allies rather than her enemy. It would do no good to try and help the others.

_"Oh well." _she thought to herself. _"The Armoroids will be finished soon. I'd better check on Elec Man."_

-t-

Roll walked quietly down the street, shopping for a few things for Dr. Light. There was a store down the street that sold the sort of hummus that he liked, and she knew that more natural foods would be better for him anyway. Sighing, she pulled the strap of her handbag more securely around her shoulder. Feeling a little forlorn, she kicked at a pebble in the street as she walked by. She was so preoccupied by her thoughts that she didn't at first notice that she was being watched.

"Hey you! Aren't you cold? You should really be wearing a coat out here. It's easily like forty-five degrees."

Roll looked behind her to see a cyan and green clad robot girl following her. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"All you're wearing is that red dress, and it doesn't have any sleeves." The girl-bot said as she caught up. "Won't you get sick?"

Things like this happened to Roll all the time, and it almost brought a small smile to her face that it had happened again. "Oh, I'm not really a human. I'm a robot. My name's Roll."

"Ah, that would explain it. I'm Crystal Bot, by the way."

"Nice to meet you. Hm...I don't remember Dr. Light designing you."

Crystal Bot laughed. "Doesn't he have assistant designers? Besides, he can't be running around designing every single robot out there. Everyone wants one of us nowadays."

Roll nodded. "I tell you, it's getting to where we're all mass produced. I'm not sure that I like it, but there aren't a lot of people that can program like Dr. Light." Unconsciously, Roll let out an automatic sigh. "Poor Dr. Light..."

"Oh, what's wrong with him? He's not hurt, is he?"

Roll wondered a moment if she should tell Crystal Bot. "Well...I guess it was going to be in the news anyway. Dr. Light's health is a little precarious right now, and he's in the hospital. But he'll be out in a short while...hopefully."

Crystal Bot's eyes widened. "Is that so? Will he be okay?"

"Well, he's getting older... The doctors...I don't really want to talk about it."

Her new friend seemed to understand. "That's okay. Gosh, I hope he feels better soon. I feel a little indebted to him for all his hard work in robotics."

"A lot of robots are sure to feel that way." Roll replied. "Hey, what are you doing now? I'm doing some shopping for Dr. Light so he'll be happier during his stay in the hospital. Want to help?"

Crystal Bot was clearly astonished. "Wow, I'd really love to, but I'm in the middle of a chore now. But let's definitely hang out in the future, okay? Wow, I can't believe I've met a celebrity!"

Roll blushed. "I'm not that famous. It's all because of Mega Man anyway. I'll see you later!"

"Bye now!"

As Roll continued with her errands, Crystal Bot mused over the situation with a giggle.

"Roll sure is a nice robot, but way too trusting. For all she knows, I might be a Wily-bot!"

/

Notes:

- Okay, it's probably not the best thing I've ever written, but seeing as I've got other things on my plate right at this moment this project is mostly a stream-of-conciousness thing. Though I do hope you like the ideas behind it. The best plot is yet to come.

- Just fyi, all of the robots here know both Japanese and English, and they are aware of both their Japanese and English names (like Rockman vs Megaman).


	2. The Way Things Stand

"Junkbots, all of them..." Bass remarked grumpily as he mercilessly kicked a met out of his path. He wanted to speak to Dr. Wily without delay, and due to Dr. Wily's raid of the robot museum, not only were several lesser bots scattered over Dr. Wily's secret island base, but the robot masters had returned. Bass couldn't stand any of them, and the only robot he could tolerate for extended amounts of time was his loyal dog Treble, who was currently in disrepair, and one of the topics on Bass' mind.

The path to the fortress first went underground into a large cavern, one as huge as a city. Long, metal pillars, placed there by Wily, kept the huge cave from falling in on itself. The fortress itself was large, ostentatious, and without a doubt based on the evil genius' obsession with skulls. Bass never did understand his creator's fixation, but it wasn't something Bass cared about.

"Let the old man design what he wants however he wants." the robot thought with irritation. "Who cares?"

Entering the building and ignoring whatever robots that bothered to say "hello" (and there were few of those), Bass made his way into the main repair station where Dr. Wily spent most of his time. And Wily was there, standing on the side of one of his Armoroids that had been damaged in the earlier fight against Mega Man.

"Well, old man, is he done yet?"

Dr. Wily looked up from his work and scowled. "If you want anything done, Bass, you can use a more respectful tone of voice."

With that, Wily turned back to his welding, hoping in vain that his troublesome creation would simply go away without an argument. It was a ridiculous hope, and he knew it.

"I've been waiting for four weeks for you to repair Treble," Bass continued, seething. "And yet all you've done is work on another one of your retarded schemes? All of those robot 'masters' are junk, and you wasted your time getting them back. If you would just fix Treble, I'd be on my way, and I'd be taking Mega Man down already."

"Oh really?" Dr. Wily slapped down his tools violently on a nearby table as he turned his attention to his aggravating robot. "How many times have you said that before and failed? No, I'm not going to put my faith in you any longer, Bass. Not until you can actually bring in some results."

"What, you really think the robot masters are better than me?"

"They complain less, don't they? And their sheer numbers are something to be reckoned with. Don't distract me from my work, Bass, and if I feel like it, I'll fix Treble...if I feel like it! Now stop bothering me. I've got better things to do, and unless you plan on cooperating, then I don't want to hear it!"

"_Obba_!" the nearby double doors opened up, and Crystal Bot came through with a large glass of something thick, green and unpleasant smelling. "It's time for a for your wheatgrass special! Ah, Forte-kun, _Anyonghasaeyo_!"

"Don't call me 'Forte-kun'." Bass growled, folding his arms in annoyance. That girl-bot was more trouble than she was worth, and Bass figured that Dr. Wily must have created her simply so that he could pretend he actually had a real daughter.

"Crystal Bot, what is all that you're saying?" Dr. Wily asked as he reluctantly picked up his drink and sniffed it uncertainly. Crystal Bot had the habit of "enhancing" it with additional supplements, none of which were appetizing.

"Oh, I'm learning korean, and _Obba _means Dad." Crystal Bot grinned. "It's fun. I think I'll learn spanish next."

"You know I can simply install both of those languages in your head, right?" Dr. Wily chuckled before turning to the substance in his hand. He observed with disgust that it could barely be categorized as a liquid. "Ugh, do I really have to drink this?"

"Now, Dad, you know it's good for you." Crystal Bot said with glee, as she walked over to the table, sitting on it and swinging her legs very childishly under it. "It keeps you on your feet while poor old Doctor Light is in the hospital."

"What, is that true?"

Crystal Bot nodded, happy that she could inform Dr. Wily of something he didn't already know. "I heard he's basically on his last leg, and he's getting all of his affairs in order. I did a little research and found out he's probably got a year left. That guy got old quick."

"Ah," Dr. Wily distractedly placed the glass down on the table as he mused over this bit of news. "So my old rival is will soon pass into the next world? That means the timing is perfect for my next attack! He will be able to look on as I finally take over the world, and be helpless to do anything about it! This is absolutely perfect!"

Crystal Bot let out an extremely girly giggle as Dr. Wily laughed as only an evil genius could. Bass couldn't help but facepalm and wonder how someone so insane could have possibly come close to conquering the world nine times.

"**_Ahem_." Bass said roughly. "I believe we were discussing Treble's repairs."**

"No. Absolutely not." Dr. Wily's cheery mood crumbled, instantly returning him to his state of high annoyance. "You can either cooperate and join in on my plans, or you can go without."

Crystal Bot watched as the two continued to argue. She didn't like these kinds of fights either, and wasn't really sure what to do. But the thought of a poor little robot lying broken in some abandoned workstation made the girl-bot want to cry. So she thought for a moment before speaking.

"Oh...you know, Dad, _you _don't have to repair Treble." Crystal Bot interrupted, a little timidly, gaining confidence as she went on. "I'll do it! Treble is such a cute little dog, and I like him a lot! Oh please, Daddy, let me! It would be so much fun! Please...?"

Dr. Wily considered it. "...Very well. But only because you asked me. Bass, if you were polite, you would thank her."

But he wasn't going to. He just rolled his eyes.

"Alright, I've had enough of this. I need a break." Dr. Wily took one more look at the Armoroid. "Hm, it's about finished. Crystal Bot, get some of the mechanoloids to repaint this Armoroid before you start on Treble. And Bass, I have some specific plans for you, so get to the main computer lab when the dog is finished. Until then, make yourself scarce."

With that, the doctor started to leave.

"Uh, Dad?" Crystal Bot held out the wheat grass accusingly.

"Oh, right...right." Dr. Wily took it with a sheepish grin.

"Ha, you thought you were sneaky." Crystal Bot winked.

As Dr. Wily left, Crystal Bot turned to Bass. "See, you've just got to know how to talk to him."

"Ugh. The day I say 'please daddy' like a sap is the day I should be caught in a trash compactor." Bass sneered. "How long until Treble is finished?"

"Well that's nice. You just make demands without a word of thanks."

"Okay, fine. Thank you, Crystal Bot." Bass said with sarcasm. "How long?"

"Hm, I'm not too familiar with his design, but he's not that complicated anyway. I caught a glance of his problems earlier, and I can guess he'll be done tomorrow."

"Good." Bass began his abrupt departure, trying to think of ways to amuse himself until then. But as he reached the door, it opened from the other side, revealing Elec Man. The older robot looked a bit surprised to see Bass, but he merely said "excuse me" before going around and confronting Crystal Bot.

"What exactly are you doing here?" Elec Man folded his arms disapprovingly at Crystal.

"Um...I was just about to get to work on Treble, why?"

"No. You're supposed to be working on the monitoring systems. You know it's vitally important for Dr. Wily to be able to keep track of us when we're carrying out our plans, and he can't keep everything maintained by himself. Get to work on it now. That dog can be fixed later."

"Elec Man, you may be in charge of us robot masters, but Dr. Wily is still the boss of you." Crystal Bot's eyes narrowed with uncharacteristic violence as she got off the table. "And he said I can work on Treble, so that's what I'm doing. Anyway, Bass is witness if you don't believe me."

Elec Man looked back bemusedly at Bass, who had remained in the room to see how the situation would play itself out. He certainly wasn't pleased with Elec Man's demand. Turning back to Crystal Bot, Elec Man replied, "Bass doesn't count. He just wants his assistant back. The monitoring systems are far more important, so get to it, you disobedient, team 5 piece of junk."

The elder robot's words struck a nerve in Crystal Bot. She clenched her fists and glared at him, wishing that her helmet was less covering so that she could give him a really nasty look. As it was, she merely walked up to him sternly and stuck a defiant finger in his face.

"NO."

And as she left the infuriated Elec Man in the workstation, Bass couldn't help but feel a little proud of her.

-t-

Back at Dr. Light's laboratory, Mega Man was a mess. He was lying on the mechanical repair table, still operational, but barely. While his mind was awake and capable of thought, the rest of him was in a far more distressing state. His left leg was dented in several places, but his right had to be reattached altogether, once its burnt out wires were replaced. His buster's power conduit was badly damaged, not only requiring the normally efficient weapon to be restabilized, but forcing Auto to rebuild most of his buster arm. Sundry cords and robotic arms were about him, automatically reparing and upgrading as much as they could, while Mega Man's computer mind continued to wander the internet as he did his investigating.

"I suppose this was the best time for him to get injured." Auto remarked to Roll. "His new armor platelets are ready to be installed."

"I just can't believe he was beaten this badly..." Roll remarked, worry covering her face. "Those Armoroid things proved to be a challenge."

"Don't worry, he'll be fine in just two hours." Auto patiently insisted. "Besides, Mega Man at least destroyed three of them. And with these new upgrades, the last two shouldn't prove to be a problem."

As Auto finished speaking, Mega Man blinked and disconnected from the internet. He frowned, appearing deep in thought about something.

"What did you find out?" Roll asked.

"Well, you know that the mayor keeps all of the robot master's CPUs locked up, and Dr. Wily retrieved them yesterday while I was distracted."

"That's pretty low, even for him." Auto remarked.

Mega Man nodded before continuing. "But I've been communicating with town hall's security team, and it appears that several alarms mysteriously were shut off just before Dr. Wily's attack there."

"So? Wily wanted them taken out."

"But that's not it." Mega Man said with concern as the robotic arms finished working on his upper body, allowing him to sit up. "They were shut off with access codes, not through hacking. Someone on the inside wanted Dr. Wily to get the CPUs."

"Oh no!" Roll exclaimed. "Someone in the government is working for Wily? That's terrible!"

"Right." Megaman said. "As soon as I'm completely ready, I'll go in person to find out what I can for myself."

\\

Notes:

You probably guessed it, but just to make sure, every time a Wily bot mentions "team 5" or whatever number, they're refering to the Mega Man game they first appeared in. For example, Elec Man is a team 1 robot. Each of the robots is more or less loyal to their group, and they generally work together or brag about each team's superiority. Wily now is in possession of all teams except for teams 4 and 9. 4 is of course Dr. Cossack's robots, all of whom are now in Russia with him, having been reprogrammed for helpful tasks. Team 9 is Light's, and they're scattered around, usually in the US or Japan, doing their usual jobs and the occasional special task from Dr. Light.

- Just fyi, _Anyonghasaeyo_ means "hello", in formal tone, like you would use with strangers or people you should respect. You'll be seeing a bit more korean throughout the series, mostly because I just felt like it.


	3. A New Nemesis

Bass didn't like the crowds. With all eight of Dr. Wily's robot teams wandering about the underground lab and preparing for the mad scientist's next scheme, he felt no inclination to remain there. That, and he was programmed to follow Dr. Wily's orders. So he would make himself scarce, but he told himself he was doing it because he wanted to. He went up to the highest point on the fortress, which was an escape point that allowed the robots to reach the surface.

Skull Island was a surprisingly peaceful place. Of course, this was the fourth "Skull Island" that Wily and company had settled on, as Mega Man would discover them sooner or later. And when the blue bomber did, they would move on and rename some other island whose actual name no one ever bothered to find out. But out of all of them, Bass liked this one the best. There was more vegetation, which meant that there would be more animals. And that meant that there were more targets to shoot at.

But he didn't have the heart that night to shoot random furry or feathery critters. Instead he walked, looking around to make sure he was really alone. It wouldn't do to have Shadow Man sneaking after him. Bass was surprised that some of the more powerful robot masters hadn't destroyed Shadow Man by now. But other than that, he simply didn't want to be bothered.

Crystal Bot climbed the ladder that led to the surface. Treble was ready, and Shadow Man told her that Bass had gone that way. Shadow Man always knew where everyone was, and even if it was at times creepy, it was useful. So she lifted the rock that let in the sunlight (it was many times too heavy for a human) and climbed out from the underbrush.

Looking around, she mused over the pleasant surroundings, wondering if there were any cute animals around. But as she walked on, she thought she heard the strangest thing: singing. Peeking around a tree, Crystal Bot's eyes widened as she noticed that Bass was singing. It was a song she hadn't heard in a long time, a Japanese one. But surely enough, she was hearing the first part of a song about nostalgic childhood. It was surprisingly hyper for a nostalgia song, and her favorite part of it was coming up, where the background singers would cheer loudly. Crystal Bot thought it would be cute to join in, so she snuck up, ready to cheer.

"_Okkusenman_! _Okkusenman_!" She sang along, loudly and a little off-key.

Bass froze, cringing. There was silence for a moment.

"Oh, why did you stop?" Crystal Bot giggled. "You're really good, especially on those high notes. You get a good amount of ear bleed without losing control of your voice, just like the original singer. I like that one better than the stupid girly remix. If it doesn't make human ears explode, then what good is it?"

Bass turned to look at her, completely embarassed and angry. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I came to tell you that Treble is complete. He's waiting for you in the main computer lab with Dr. Wily."

"Fine..." Bass growled. "Then, just get out of my way. And don't you dare tell anyone about this."

"Aw, why? You sing really well." Suddenly a thought occured to her, and she grinned, putting her hands behind her back in a very childish manner. "What'll you give me?"

He glared and lifted his blaster. "How about your life?"

"Okay, fine. _Algessimneedah_." Crystal Bot jokingly saluted. "You're no fun."

"Yeah, remember that. And shut up with that korean already." Bass turned away and grumpily headed back for the secret entrance.

"_Aniyo_!" Crystal Bot called back quickly before running away.

Bass turned back to see if he could get a shot in at her, but she had already disappeared in the trees. He just sneered in her general direction before continuing on into the fortress, thinking that Crystal Bot was very lucky he had better things to do than get back at her. He'd think of something later, she could be sure of that.

But for now he headed through the imposing and purposely dangerous hallways of the skull fortress. Wily knew that Mega Man would probably arrive at some point, so it was best to always be ready. He wished Treble was ready so that he wouldn't have to waste time with the stupid disappearing blocks or bottomless pits. But even as Bass was brooding, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. It was a small glimmer coming from a side hall.

"Flash Man? What are you doing?"

Flash Man didn't answer. Instead, he put out his arm and froze Bass with his flash stopper, then switched to blaster and began to fire, pelting Bass with several buster rounds. As his first weapon wore off, Bass fell back.

"You're not getting away with that!" Bass snarled. "I don't care what Wily says."

Dodging as Flash Man attempted to jump behind him, Bass turned and fired a volley of his own buster shots, quickly exploding through Flash Man's glass skull and severely damaging his internal operations. But even as the powerful robot finally got rid of his odd nemesis, Shade Man snuck in from behind. Bass noticed him, however, and as he punched Shade Man in the face to prevent the winged bot from draining his energy, he saw that other robots, from robot masters down to mets, were approaching, and none of them seemed to be anything but hostile. It wasn't going to be an easy fight.

Not that he minded that much.

"Finally! A challenge!" Bass tore a wing from Shade Man's back and threw it at the upcoming robots, snarling as he did so. "Bring it!"

-t-

Dr. Wily, more frustrated than he had ever been in his life (besides the time that Dr. Light won a Nobel Prize), was working relentlessly on the computers in the main computer room, trying to figure out why many of his robot masters had suddenly gotten rebellious, and why those robots were now trying to affect the rest of his machines. Team 1 guarded the heavily locked doors, watching the outdoor cameras to make sure that none of the rebels would corrupt them or hurt Wily. Treble, unable to do anything but watch, paced nervously.

"The vent!" Ice Man exclaimed, pointing upward.

Immediately five weapons fired at the vent, while Guts Man held his rock above his head just in case the robot would survive the first volley. Surprisingly, Spring Man had managed to make it through, though he obviously weakened. As he fell from the vent, he suicidally charged after Cut Man, trying to get into contact with him and spread his disobedient condition by means of a small green chip in his hand. He was nearly successful, but as he got close he was only crushed by Guts Man.

"Wow, thanks bro." Cut Man said, visibly shaken.

Treble suddenly began barking loudly, and a sharp banging pounded on the western door. The robot masters, and even Wily, jumped in surprised. His robots readied their weapons while he looked to the screen.

"Bass?"

"Open up this door and tell me what's going on right now! I'm in no mood for games, old man!"

That was the Forte he knew alright. Wily's upper lip twitched at Bass' rude remark, doubting that whatever was going on affected his more powerful creation. But it was better to be safe.

"Code identification report, Wily origin: Forte!" the doctor commanded, using the small intercom that allowed communication when the two feet thick armored doors were closed.

That, of all commands, was Bass' least favorite. Any other orders Wily gave him could be carried out in any manner he wished, and even delayed for an indeterminable period of time. But not this one. This order appealed to his most basic programs, and it had to be carried out immediately.

"Identification, Bass/Forte. Model number SWN-001. Status: stable."

Bass grimaced, feeling as if the words had forced themselves out. The identification program was for keeping track of the robots, detecting viruses, and troubleshooting any mechanical errors. If there would have been anything wrong with any robot, that robot wouldn't have been able to complete the sentence, or the status would have been something other than stable.

"Alright, let him in."

Without waiting for the door to lift to its fullest height, Bass ducked under and entered. Fire Man pulled the lever again, the door returned to its place in the floor. Treble barked cheerfully and wagged his tail. Bass smiled one of his very rare smiles. It was an occasion though, as he hadn't seen Treble in almost a month. He petted the purple dog before returning to his usual disgruntled demeanor.

"What's going on?" he asked with aggravation. "Why am I suddenly being attacked by a dozen junkbots in my own home?"

Wily was too busy to respond, so Elec Man replied for him. "Not even half an hour ago a transmission went out, and apparently it activated some hidden programming in some of the robot masters. Not all of them, but if another unaffected robot is caught, they'll be infected as well. It takes a little work to spread the virus, because it has to be spread through small implantable chips that these robots have somehow gotten hold of." Elec Man sighed. "Right at the exact wrong time though."

"Bass." Dr. Wily suddenly interrupted. "Who did you run into in the halls?"

"Shade Man, Aqua Man, Flash Man, Bubble Man, and Heat Man. I destroyed them. Quick Man was there also, but he got away."

"Alright, cross them off the list..." Wily murmured to himself and nodded without looking at Bass.

"Quick Man must not be infected." Fire Man mused. "He would have gone after you if he were."

"Oh no!" Dr. Wily smacked himself in the forehead and suddenly began madly pressing buttons and flipping switches. A loud whine permeated the air, and it took a minute to get it to stop. Trying again, Wily managed to finally open the audio communications (the video feed communications were still down). "Code identification report, Wily origin: Team 5!"

Several identifications, each with a unique voice, sounded over the intercom.

"Identification, Gravity Man. Model number DWN-033. Status: stable."

"Identification, Wave Man. Model number DWN-034. Status: stable."

"Identification, Stone Man. Model number DWN-035. Status: stable."

"Identification, Gyro Man. Model number DWN-036. Status: stable."

"Identification, Star Man. Model number DWN-037. Status: stable."

"Identification, Charge Man. Model number DWN-038. Status: stable."

"Identification, Napalm Man. Model number DWN-039. Status: stable."

"Identification, Crystal Bot. Model number DWN-040. Status: stable."

He sighed with relief as he heard that Crystal Bot was alright. He wasted no more time, demanding, "Where are all of you right now?"

"We went into the city, just as we were told earlier." Wave Man, the team's leader, answered. "Is there some change in our orders?"

"Yes. This morning a signal went out, and it activated some sort of hidden virus in several of the robot masters, causing them to suddenly rampage."

"Oh no!" Crystal Bot exclaimed. "Dad, are you going to be alright? Do I need to come back?"

Dr. Wily shook his head. "No, I can't risk you getting the virus. I managed to trace the source of the transmission, but I need you to either deactivate it or use it to shut down the radical programming. Also, try to find out what you can about who activated the device. The signal came from the city, and I'm sending you the coordinates now. Everyone else, make sure that she gets there safe."

"Very well." Wave Man answered in his usual solemn manner. "We'll handle it."

With that, the doctor very carefully shut down communications, trying to prevent it from whining again. After that, he turned to his robots. "Elec Man, Ice Man, and Fire Man, you three go out and try to recover as many of our non-infected robots as you can. Destroy any already affected. I'll be able to fix them later, hopefully. And Bass, get to the city and make absolutely certain that Crystal Bot is safe."

"What?" A clearly offended Bass responded. "A babysitting mission? She's got those other guys protecting her. She doesn't need me."

The seven others in the room looked at him as if he were completely stupid.

"How long has it been since you actually met any Team 5 bots?" Bomb Man retorted. "They're all weak, and anything that's actually a threat will end up with all of them getting killed."

"That's interesting coming from you." Bass remarked. He may not have known about Team 5, but as the first team had escaped imprisonment in the robot museum, he knew what he considered too much about them. Bomb Man's fighting AI wasn't very good at all.

"Just shut up and do what I say." Dr. Wily grumpily demanded. "I'm getting tired of your attitude."

"Fine." Bass and Treble teleported away.

Team 5 arrived at the source of the transmission, a large and abandoned storage building, uneventfully.

"Charge Man, if you please." Wave Man said patiently.

"Ah-HA! Who needs doors anyway?" Charge Man posed dramatically before ramming himself through the metal wall of the storage building. The others laughed to themselves. Charge Man was always ridiculously enthusiastic about running into things of various densities, whether or not it was actually necessary. None of them judged him for it.

Entering, they found that the place itself was fairly unremarkable. Several large tractors, cars and buses, all rusted beyond usability, were stacked and scattered around the huge room, which appeared to have been abandoned for decades. Wave Man had to wonder why the metal hadn't been recycled before it got to that state.

Charge Man pulled himself out from the cars his momentum had embedded him in. "Guys, I don't think you're going to like this -"

Before he could finish, several of Wily's own mechanoloids burst out from hidden areas in the room, all obviously infected. Mets, hot heads, and sniper Joes all appeared from their hiding places behind various parts of the wreckage. They didn't seem to be spread the virus, which was fortunate for Gravity Man, who had been ambushed by five mets before he could use his gravity powers to reach the ceiling.

It was at that point in time when Bass showed up. He blasted a few of the minor enemies, but as they weren't in the least bit interesting or challenging to him, he left them for the robot masters, none of whom appeared to be doing well (in Bass' opinion). Wave Man was managing, but his water wave wasn't a big weapon, and it was difficult for him to actually hit the quick moving mets around him. Even though he was doing well against the hot heads, if one of them was standing on a car or bus, he couldn't hit it, because his water wave didn't reach that high and he could only fire his harpoon straight forward. He was better off letting the enemies come to him.

Charge Man was happily running into everything he could, stopping only occasionally to fire coal into the air. That attack however, was ineffective, as it couldn't really be aimed. The sniper Joes easily blocked it with their shields anyway. Gravity Man was able to dodge easily, but since his weapon was only a weak buster, it was taking him a ridiculously long time to actually destroy anything. Stone Man busily threw pieces of himself at the enemies, jumping on them as well. Out of all of them, he seemed to be doing the best.

Gyro Man was doing decently with his blades, but when they were swirling through the air, he had no back up weapons to defend himself with. One of the hot heads was causing him a lot of damage. Star Man's situation with his star crash was exactly the same, except he had several sniper Joes taking advantage. Napalm Man, while having a lot of fun shooting his explosives, had as hard a time at aiming as Wave Man, as his torpedos could only go forward as well, and his napalm bombs were released only at high arcs.

__

Bomb Man was right.

This is pathetic. Bass thought. _But I guess I better find Crystal Bot._

Crystal Bot wasn't fighting anyone, choosing rather to dodge and let the others distract their enemies. Instead she explored the room, climbing over a wall of decrepit taxis. Behind them was a mostly cleared area, and a small electrical box on the far wall.

__

Odd,

she thought to herself. _According to electrical engineering, that box shouldn't be there._

And of course, as she guessed, this was where their elusive enemy was hiding the device that caused trouble on their island. She attempted to approach it, only to be stopped by the weirdest robot she had ever seen, made from old traffic lights and the remains of car engines. Whoever had created him was certainly being resourceful. His traffic signals in his limbs were shining green at that point, and she had to wonder what it meant.

"Hi, I'm Crystal Bot." she said, not really certain of how else to react.

"Why, hello there. I'm Signal Man," The oddity replied with a bow. "Faithful servant of Dr. Nikola Cain."

"Dr. Cain? I've never heard of him."

"And there's a reason for that." Signal Man's voice darkened considerably as he said it. "But eh, I'll have to make a name for him somehow! And I'll do that by defeating Dr. Wily."

Crystal Bot was confused. "Don't people get famous by attacking Mega Man?"

"That's on the list, but one thing at a time." Signal Man lowered the blaster on his right arm. "Are you ready?"

"Uh..." Crystal Bot cringed at the idea of fighting. Looking up, her worried face switched to one of relief. "Ah, you better watch out, Signal Man, Forte-kun is here! He'll blast you away real quick-like! You're doomed already!"

Bass grinned and leaned back from where he was sitting, on top of a double-decker bus. Treble, who seemed equally relaxed, was on a car beside him.

"What a nice thing to say." Bass said indifferently. "But I think you can handle this guy. Besides, I'm just waiting for Mega Man to arrive so I can fight him. He's sure to show up at some point or another."

"But...Bass...I can't...please, don't leave me by myself!" Crystal Bot begged.

Ignoring her, Bass instead turned to his dog. "So Treble, how about those Yankees? Think they'll win this year?"

Treble, happy to be in on the joke, barked jovially.

"Bass..."

"Look's like he's about to attack. You better do something."

Bass wasn't interested in getting into a fight with Signal Man, as he appeared to be nothing more than another robot master. While his orders were to protect Crystal Bot, he figured he could at least let her do some of the work. He wouldn't let her get destroyed.

Crystal Bot turned uncertainly back to Signal Man, forcing herself to try to be intimidating. Her opponent just laughed. "If you expect me to be scared after that little display, I'm afraid you're wrong, little girl."

Signal Man rushed her, shooting a green and powerful looking laser. But as he did, she jumped into the air, and the crystals on her chest and helmet glowed, charging and firing her crystal eye. It sent out four crystal orbs in four different directions. One of them managed to hit Signal Man, and another bounced straight into Bass' face (which didn't bother Crystal Bot at all). However, Signal Man's next weapon, which Crystal Bot was unable to dodge, was some sort of strange yellow substance that crammed itself into Crystal Bot's joints and forced her to slow down, as well as cutting down on the height of her jumps. It seemed to wear off after a while, but it was still annoying, besides allowing Signal Man to hit her.

Try as she might, Crystal Bot couldn't get one of her homing shots to land on Signal Man. She would jump and fire it, but it aimed at where Signal Man had been standing when she first energized the weapon, so if he moved an inch before she fired, it wouldn't hit. Frustrated, she just gave up and formed a long blue crystal rod, which allowed her to at least hit Signal Man. However, a little light on Signal Man's arm changed from yellow to red. As he fired his buster, nothing emerged, but Crystal Bot was frozen. The light on her enemy switched back to green, and he got ready to fire his laser at her.

"Alright, that's enough." Bass finally jumped down and fired at Signal Man, destroying him. "This was taking way too long. Seriously, Crystal Bot, what's wrong with your weapons? Can't you fire without jumping? And your homing shot just plain sucks. You should have fired more of those orb things. They at least were a little dangerous."

"I...couldn't." she confessed unwillingly.

"Why not?"

Crystal Bot bowed her head and clenched her fists, answering barely audibly. "I have Toad Man disease."

"AHAHAHAHAAHAA!" Bass couldn't contain himself. "Oh that's rich!"

"It's only a mild case!" Crystal Bot insisted. "At least I can still fight when someone's near me."

Bass kept laughing. "You call that fighting?"

"Having disadvantages creates challenges where I'm forced to be smarter." she defended herself, poking him in the chest with her crystal rod. "So at the end of the day, I may be weak, but I become a smarter fighter. I bet I'm better than you at fighting with my crystal rod."

"Right..." Bass sneered sarcastically, smacking it away. "Because blunt instruments are so useful against robots."

"Hey!" Napalm Man shouted accusingly. "Toad Man disease is no laughing matter! Leave her alone!"

"You have it too, don't you?"

Napalm Man silenced, unable to find a good comeback. The accusation was true.

As Charge Man ran into the last few of the reprogrammed mechanoloids, the other robot masters gathered to Crystal Bot's position. She pulled the box from the wall, opening it to look inside.

"Whatever it is, it's not transmitting now." Crystal Bot observed. "That means that the signal wasn't responsible for corrupting the robots. Something must have compromised them while they were being held in the robot museum, to be activated once this thing went off. Signal Man must have been expecting us to come after him and retaliate."

"But...like this? It wasn't too bad." Gyro Man pondered. "If he was expecting us, wouldn't he have prepared something more?"

"I guess we got here fast enough...but you're still right..." Crystal Bot replied, wondering what Dr. Cain could have been thinking. "I suspect maybe they didn't think Dad could trace the signal this quickly."

"In that case," Wave Man said. "We shouldn't stay here for too long. More of them are sure to be on the way."

"I don't think it'll be too bad." Gravity Man spoke up. "After all, all this guy did was send in our own robots, as if he didn't make any more of his own. Most of the mechanoloids stay on Skull Island until we actually have plans. These must have been the ones that Wily sent out to get things started."

The conversation was relatively boring to Bass, who chose to stare out the window rather than listen to any more of it. Where was Mega Man?

As if she could read his mind, Crystal Bot suddenly addressed him. "Explosions are pretty. I like them. I bet Mega Man likes them too, and if we blew some things up, Mega Man would arrive to come and watch."

Wave Man nodded. "It's probably for the best that we destroy this place."

"Alright!" Napalm Man exclaimed, readying his torpedoes. "What are we waiting for?"

\\

Author's notes:

- This part was a bit longer than I wanted, but I just wanted to get in a good chunk of ideas before moving on to the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. As you may expect, Signal Man is going to be one of eight new Cain robot masters. By the way, if you play Mega Man 5, you find out that it is true Crystal Man and Napalm Man have "Toad Man disease", where if you get too close to them or attack them too quickly it interferes with how they attack. Crystal Man won't fire his crystal eye, and Napalm Man won't fire his straight torpedo.

- Dr. Cain's first name, Nikola, comes from Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American who was a scientific rival to Thomas Edison. While he was intelligent and invented many things of his own, Edison ended up with more fame.

- I rechecked the guidelines, and I don't think my writing "Okkusenman" violates the rules, because I'm not copying the lyrics. We're not supposed to put in the lyrics for songs in here (which made writing the early part of this chapter more difficult), but I had to include those two words to make it work. Someone let me know if it's okay. Besides, it's technically the title of the song, and the rules only say you can't have the lyrics, so I think I'm alright. But if I'm wrong, tell me so I can change it. I'll somehow make it work. But in any case, it's only polite to link to the real song, which can be found here: you tube .com/watch?v=FzSR_TFMirs . That version is the version Bass was singing, complete with the ear-bleeding high-notes. The site has also a lot of mixes without the crazy high notes, but like Crystal Bot said, what good are they? Oh, and the link has english subs for the lyrics.

- For the record, "_Algessimneedah_" is the korean equivalent to "I'll go do that" or "I understand" or something of that nature. It doesn't translate directly into english all that well. And like any word ending in "_imneedah_", it's in formal style, reserved for people you should show a lot of respect. "_Aniyo_" means no, the "-yo" part being the polite ending, which you would reserve for people you should be polite to, like your parents or people that you don't know well. When you're with your good friends you can just say "_ani_" or "_andeh_".


	4. Power and Deception

Mega Man was pensive as he and Rush flew over the city. He had just returned from the mayor's office, where he had learned new details about Wily's capture of the robot master CPUs: it had been all too easy for the evil genius to get his hands on them. Just for the sake of figuring things out, Rock replayed the memory in his mind.

****

"That's right, Mega Man." the lead security officer said, as the construction crew behind him was doing its best to clear the rubble of what was left of the mayor's office. "Our alarm system was shut down with the appropriate codes. Only an employee, and a close one at that, would be told what those codes are."

"So Wily had an insider?"

The tall, auburn bearded man shook his head. "While the alarm was off, whoever it was only shut off the electromagnetic doors that led into the underground lab where the CPUs were kept. Other security measures were left alone."

Mega Man immediately grasped the human's point. "Oh! If the person had been working with Wily, they would have shut down all of them. As it was, they wanted Wily to believe he had some sort of resistance. But who would know these codes?"

The officer thought for a moment. "The mayor would know the alarm code, but not the doors...also, there are additional security doors that can only be opened with individualized key cards, so that we would know exactly who was entering the lab at any point in time. Unfortunately, the only person whose card was used, other than the security guards on duty who wouldn't be able to bypass the door's security, belonged to a doctor who wasn't even at the lab that night. His card went missing that morning."

"But did the cameras pick anything up?" Mega Man asked.

"Barely a thing. About thirty minutes before Wily's robots arrived, they started picking up static. At parts you can sort of see vague shapes, but that's it. Something was causing interference. I can't believe in this day and age we've got all these clever robots running around, but we can't get decent video cameras working. However, we were able to get one good image."

The guard took Mega Man over to a police trailer, where the local police force, consisting of both humans and robots, were looking over the security feed. They had captured about two seconds of an odd shape working at the security panel shortly after the time the cameras began to fail. It was a very fuzzy and half-distorted picture, but it was a little helpful.

"That's definitely a robot." Mega Man noticed. "I don't recognise it, though. It doesn't match any of the Wily-bots in my database."

"And it's doesn't match any of the robots that Light and his collegues manufacture." The officer added. "I think we're dealing with a new bad guy here."

Mega Man shut down the memory. That last bit bothered him to no end. It had been many years since he'd first had to deal with Wily, and yet that conflict, as many victories as he had won, was still unresolved. And now there was some new evil genius at hand? Rock shook his head. He couldn't think like that. This had to be some new scheme from Wily. Even if there was a new doctor around, possibly he was simply a poser, someone who wasn't as clever as Wily. Mega Man knew that as insane as Wily was, he was genuinely smart, second in robotic knowledge only to Dr. Light. Not even Dr. Cossack could boast Wily's powers over titanium and circuitry. Hopefully the new threat would be weaker still.

And now that he was busily trying to figure out what was going on there, one of the policemen had alerted him that Bass and several Wily-bots were attacking the old downtown area. This, along with Dr. Light's poor health, were too much for Mega Man.

"I'm going to need a break..."

"That's just too bad, Rock."

Several purple blaster shots pelted Mega Man in the back, sending him flying off of Rush. He fell face first into the side of a warehouse, where he made a very nice imprint into the thin metal walls.

"Dang it, Bass." Mega Man complained as he pulled himself out of the wreckage he caused. "Don't you ever quit?"

"No. I'm sure you know that by now."

Bass fired off a few more shots, most of which Mega Man was able to dodge. However, he ran straight into Wave Man's attack, and had to duck quickly to dodge Gyro Man's blades. However, as he did, he was hit by the star shield. He almost fell to the ground again, but he managed to hold steady.

"Back off!" Bass shouted at the Team 5 robots. "I've got this!"

"Let us get a shot in, once in a while." Gyro Man said angrily, throwing his blades at Mega Man again. "This isn't just about you, y'know."

"Shut up and get out of my way, sandwich boy." Bass fired a warning shot at Gyro Man before charging after his rival.

Mega Man decided that this was as good a time as any to activate his new abilities. Activating the appropriate program, Mega Man's colors suddenly changed. He was still blue, but he darkened considerably as his armor showed his new defense form. Bass cringed, but he continued shooting, only to find that his buster shots were only doing half as much damage as they usually did. And that was when they hit. Mega Man dodged the shots more gracefully than Top Man (grace being just about the only thing Top Man is able to boast about).

Frustrated, Bass turned to his dog. "Treble!"

It was obvious to anyone that Bass was going to merge, but before he could do so, Mega Man was charging his buster. Letting it go, it hit the arrogant fighter just as Treble had reached him. Bass' circuits practically screamed in agony as Bass flew completely over Treble, only to crash into both Gravity Man and Napalm Man. The attack not only affected Bass, but the two unfortunate robot masters that he hit short circuited as well.

Crystal Bot gasped, not so much at the damage done to her allies, but because of Mega Man's technology. She was impressed, and she wanted it at once. But as she gasped, she dropped the fake powerbox that had contained Signal Man's virus activator. It clattered against the ground, undamaged, but it still attracted Mega Man's attention.

"Hey, what is that?"

Crystal Bot went to pick it up, not noticing the blue bomber. However, she did notice when Mega Man reached it before her.

"A powerbox?" he asked. "What exactly are you doing with this?"

"Hey, that's not yours!" she protested, attempting and failing to snatch it away. Mega Man aimed his buster at her.

Suddenly Mega Man heard sounds behind him. Turning he noticed that Bass had somewhat recovered from the previous blast and had now successfully merged with Treble. What he didn't see was Crystal Bot creating a small pink crystal and quickly touching it to his back, causing only a rather pathetic second-long glitch. However, even second-long glitches can be hazardous when there is a purple flying robot coming to gun you down. Bass managed in several shots before Mega Man was able to return fire. The battle continued for a few more minutes, but Bass wasn't stupid; he could see where this fight was going.

"You got lucky this time." Bass seethed. "But I'll be back."

Before Mega Man could respond, all of the robots had teleported away, taking their strange power box with them. Despite himself, Mega Man smiled a little. When Bass did inevitably show up again, he would be ready.

-t-

The Wily-bots didn't go that far when they teleported away, mostly because of Napalm and Gravity Man. Their transporters were unstable because of the damage they had taken, and they wouldn't be able to teleport again until something was done about them.

"What's wrong with you?" Gyro Man accused Bass. "If you hadn't been such a glory hog we might have been able to do something about Mega Man!"

Before Bass could start, Wave Man quickly spoke to avoid an argument. "Gyro Man, be realistic. We haven't seen Mega Man this powerful ever. If you were watching him, you would notice that he was powered up and could have destroyed all of us far too easily. Even despite that, arguing solves nothing. Now who's got the power box?"

"I have it." Star Man answered.

"Good. Then let's get back to Skull Island. Crystal, hurry and...where did she go?"

The others looked around as Bass facepalmed, realizing that he was technically still under orders to keep her safe. There was no way Wily was going to let him return to the island without her. Moreover, she wasn't responding to their electronic communications either. That girl-bot was proving to be a lot of trouble to keep up with.

"You guys go back and tell Wily what happened." Bass grudgingly muttered, not seeming to remember that none of them could do a thing for Gravity and Napalm. "I'll go find Crystal Bot and get her back...if I don't decide to kill her..."

-t-

"Wow, this is amazing!" Crystal Bot exclaimed. "I can't believe I'm in Mega Man's actual house!"

Roll grinned. "Ha, it's really just a lab. I'm so glad you're here. The main workstation has been a huge mess for a long time, and now I finally have a chance to clean it up."

"Uh..." Crystal Bot added timidly. "I'm not really a cleaner. I'm not sure how helpful I can be, but I can haul stuff at the very least."

"That's okay. It's mostly things that need to be hauled anyway."

The two girl-bots walked casually down the hall to the main workstation, which turned out to be exactly as Roll described it: a huge mess. There were crates, some half-opened with scattered contents, all surrounding the walls, and various tools covered the main computer. Long copper cords, obviously spares from some major construction project, lay in a huge stack against the window, blocking out half of its height.

"Okay." Roll said. "Most of this just needs to go to the storeroom, which is just next door, but then it needs to be organized according to use. We'll have to haul these cords together because they're so long, but after that I'll get to deciding what goes where and you can haul in the boxes."

Crystal Bot winked. "Sounds like a plan."

The long cords were definitely the most annoying part of the job. The wheel-about suddenly broke, leaving the girls to simply wrap the cord around dollies and haul them in a few at a time. But both of them were fairly accustomed to tedious work, and their conversation made it more pleasant.

"So Crystal, who do you work for?"

"This guy named Dr. Inafune." Crystal Bot pulled the end of the heavy copper cord over her shoulder so it wouldn't drag on the floor. "I'm a technician, and I keep his mechanaloids in order."

"Oh, he builds robots?"

"Nah, he buys those. He just builds cars." Eager not to tell too many lies and be found out, Crystal changed the subject. "Hey Roll, do you play an instrument?"

"I'm learning the piano now." Roll answered as both of them pushed their dollies into the storeroom. "I suppose I could just have it installed, but learning it naturally is more fun. And the basic piano programs are constraining. If I use my AI right, I'll be able to be a real composer."

"Ooh, that's so cool!" Crystal Bot replied genuinely. "I play the guitar. We should totally start a band. A girl-bot only band. Does Splash Woman play something?"

"Well, she plays the flute, but she likes singing better." Roll laughed. "But we better wait until I actually finish learning."

"Right, but at least we know now who our lead singer will be."

Roll liked the idea. As she unraveled her cord to store it on the back shelf of the storeroom, she added. "I think we should be called 'The Digital Sweethearts' or something like that. Does that sound too corny?"

"Yes it does." Crystal Bot giggled. "So it's perfect!"

The girls finally finished getting all of the cords stored, and Crystal Bot managed to keep their conversation on light and fairly meaningless topics. As they followed Roll's plan, Crystal Bot noticed that one of the half-unpacked boxes, a small one, held some sort of odd blue discs, each one resembling two-dimensional circuit boards.

"What are these?" the green and cyan girl held one up.

"Oh, those are some super storage discs Dr. Light invented. They're pretty exclusive right now, but they can hold up to five hundred times what normal discs do."

"I totally need to tell Dr. Inafune to buy some." Crystal Bot didn't have to feign her excitement.

As Roll went back to the storage room to organize the boxes, Crystal went up to the main computer. Working quickly, she inserted one of the discs and started uploading information about Mega Man's new upgrades before quickly going back to hauling the boxes. She needed to bring as many of the boxes as she could to Roll, so that Roll would have no reason to come back into the computer room and see what she was doing.

It was a lot of work though. As many boxes as there were to haul, it would definitely take housekeeper a long time to organize it all. When Crystal put two of the boxes down near the door, she paused to ask Roll something.

"Hey, don't you have an assistant?"

"What do you mean?" Roll let herself be interrupted from deciding where boxes of wires were going to go.

"Well, Mega Man has Rush, Dr. Light has Auto, but you're stuck keeping house by yourself? That's no good at all."

"Oh, I make do." Roll said contentedly as she started stacking the small boxes in a metal cabinet. "It's not too bad."

"Says you." Crystal Bot scoffed teasingly. "I'm building you an assistant and I won't take no for an answer."

As she departed the storeroom, Crystal Bot took a good look at her surroundings, trying to figure out what characteristics a cleaning-bot would need in an assistant. It would defintely need to be able to haul a lot, and it should be able to reach inconvenient areas, she decided. And it would also have to be able to steal data from Light's lab without being caught.

\\\\\\

Notes:

- Please review! I really like this story, and I hope you guys like it too. I'm trying not to make the chapters too long, and the story itself won't be huge on the whole. The only thing I'm really sad about is I don't think this scene I had in mind for Top Man will work out. I wanted to show off some of his personality, because he takes his lameness in stride and makes it hilarious. Oh well. He'll at least show up at some point.


	5. Dr Cain's Invasion

Bass was starting to get frustrated. Crystal Bot wasn't responding to the encrypted radio communications he was using to signal her, leaving him with no choice but to fly with Treble simply by looking. According to Fire Man (who had contacted him from the island), the rest of Team 5 was already on their way back to the fortress, and Wily wasn't pleased that Crystal was the only one left out. "Wasn't pleased" was how Fire Man had put it, but Bass could tell even from the more calm terminology Fire Man used that his creator was outright furious. Bass was starting to get sick of always trying to get back on Wily's good side.

And so Bass was himself furious when he finally heard Crystal Bot's voice. He directed Treble downwards immediately, but suddenly paused when he heard another voice. He directed Treble to a side alley so that he could listen.

"Yeah, he's getting a little better." Roll said as she and Crystal walked down the quiet downtown street, headed for the subway. "Hopefully he'll be home in a week."

"Dr. Inafune was so sad when I told him about Dr. Light." Crystal Bot said regretfully. "We all owe so much to him. Is there anything I can do?"

"I'm not sure..." Roll sighed. "I don't want to talk about it. But tell me about Dr. Inafune. What is he like? Can I meet him sometime? I'm sure I could arrange for him to meet Dr. Light."

Bass rolled his eyes. Crystal was obviously lying, but she was still in trouble. Roll was far too friendly and open of a person to simply let Crystal Bot leave by herself to go to wherever "Dr. Inafune" was supposed to be staying. He was going to have to get rid of her. So he flew into open and and sent out a few warning shots (letting some of them hit precariously near Crystal).

"Bass!" Roll exclaimed, her eyes widening with annoyance and fear. "Why do you always have to cause trouble?"

"Eh, you know me." the dark robot's grin was large and wicked. "I always need some excitement."

"Roll!" Crystal Bot said desperately as she posed aggressively, appearing to try and fight Bass. "You run and get Mega Man! I'll hold him off!"

"Right! Be careful!" Roll ran off, looking back and hoping that somehow she would be able to reach her brother before all that was left of Crystal was a pile of blackened metal plates.

As soon as Roll was out of sight, Crystal Bot dropped the act. "Whoo, you showed up at a good time."

"And where have you been?" Bass snarled accusingly, dropping his own calm act. "Couldn't you at least answer when someone is trying to signal you?"

"I really apologize about that." Crystal Bot answered sincerely. "Apparently my teleporter and my communications devices were damaged in the fight with Signal Man."

"Then why did you leave? You should have stayed where you could be found!"

"Sorry..." her giggle severely tested Bass' patience. "But when I saw Mega Man earlier, I just had to find out how those new upgrades worked." Crystal pulled out an UltraStore disc from her hood, one she had taken from Dr. Light's lab. "I'm sure this will make Dad calm down."

"Fine." Bass said impatiently. "Let's just get out of here."

Annoyed that they couldn't just teleport back to the island since Crystal's teleportation circuits were broken, Bass pulled her behind him onto Treble and they flew off. As it was dusk and fading into night, lights were starting to come on all around Monstropolis, and Crystal Bot couldn't help but look at it all. Large skyscrapers illuminated the city's outline, only interrupted by a large, calm lake that was just off its center. They were basically following the river to the coast, where the dark waves were making their impression on the sand. It was beautiful.

"It must be a lot of fun to get to fly like this a lot." Crystal Bot mentioned.

"Huh." Bass didn't care much for talking at the moment. "If you like it so much, tell the old man to build you your own dog."

"It doesn't matter. I spend all my time in the lab anyway. I won't be getting out of it in a while, not with having to make sure all of our robots are free of that virus. Dr. Cain is proving to be a lot of trouble already. I'm not sure if Dad'll be able to complete his plans."

Bass didn't respond, and Crystal decided that she would keep her thoughts to herself, until she remembered something.

"Forte-kun?"

"Don't call me that."

"Is your blaster in your left or right arm?"

Seeing as she was a technician, Bass decided it was probably for his own benefit that he answered. "There's actually one in both so that I can keep firing if one gets damaged. I just use the left one more."

"Why can't you use them at the same time?"

His expression changed from one of stony indifference to a more curious look. "I'm not sure. As far as I know nobody can."

"Napalm Man sort of can, but he doesn't use busters, just napalm bombs." Crystal noted. "Hm, maybe there's something I can do about that."

"Hey, there's something I meant to ask you." Bass remembered. "What was that you did to Mega Man today? How did you get him to glitch?"

"Oh, I used my pink energy crystal. Unlike the physically stronger, blue crystal I make, it's a power source. If I polarize the crystal's energy in a certain way, I can create my own instant death spikes. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to make it big enough, so it just made a glitch. Instant death spikes are trickier to make than people imagine. It's why they don't get used that often, and why you can't actually make an entire room full of them. They affect each other, and too many in one place will create-"

"Shut up!" Bass suddenly snapped, listening to their surroundings.

Something wasn't right. Bass could have sworn he saw something flying by them. Something small, but it had been there nonetheless. For a moment, nothing more happened. Then suddenly tiny little blades flew up in their direction, from the ground in front of them. Treble took the brunt of the attack, causing all three of them to fall hundreds of feet below, crashing through the branches of several trees as they plummeted down near the coast.

"Ow..." complained Crystal as she pulled a branch out of her helmet.

"Stop whining. At least you're not covered in these...things." Bass pulled one of the blades out of his chest. For a small thing, it had gone pretty deep into his armor. Observing it, he noticed that the round half-moon blade had a small oval on its dull side. An LED light was glowing red on it, blinking rapidly.

"What is this crap?"

No sooner had he asked then it suddenly exploded, as did the other blades. Crystal Bot was fine, as none of it had actually hit her, and Bass' armor was strong enough to endure it without too much damage. Treble, however, sparked and hissed. Wires came out from their proper places, the two front limbs were almost completely detached, and it was clear that he wouldn't be flying any time soon. Bass cursed and readied his blaster.

"I'll see what I can do here." Crystal pulled out a pair of pliers from the armor on her leg.

Bass nodded, too intent on going after and blasting the new threat to pieces to do anything else. No one could hurt his dog and get away with it. He ran in the direction the attack had come from, ready to make a scrapheap out of the offender.

It didn't take him long to find the enemy, who Bass guessed to be another Cain-bot. It was a tall, red robot, with thin facial features and a spiked head. The stranger's sharp features were difficult to make out, however, as several randomly shaped pieces of metal orbited him from his feet to his pointy head. As soon as he caught a glimpse of Bass, he grinned deviously and shot out another wave of his blades, all of which somehow managed not to crash into the stranger's odd shielding before flying outwards.

The Wily-bot dodged the barrage with relative ease, pelting the red robot with his blaster. Unfortunately, only a few of his shots made it through.

"Hahahahaa!" laughed the maniacal machine, in a wild, dramatic voice. "Why, hello there yourself. I'm Emit Man, Dr. Cain's creation and a sign of the times to come, when the name of Wily will no longer be feared-hey! Why aren't you listening to me?"

Bass wasn't listening because he was shooting. His AI was quickly adapting to the pattern of the metal pieces around Emit Man. That and he figured if he just kept shooting he'd hit Emit Man eventually. Having rapid fire was very handy.

"THAT'S SO RUDE!" an offended Emit Man exclaimed. "I'm trying to tell you something important here! I'll teach you not to pay attention!"

More of the bomb blades flew out, and Bass was hard pressed to dodge them. A few managed to hit his legs and explode, causing his joints to weaken. He wasn't going to come out of the fight unscathed.

"Alright, it looks like you're going to be the first victim of the new order!" Emit Man cheered. "But not the only one tonight! My associate, Psycho Man, is right now preparing a mechanaloid army that will tear this city apart! There is nothing that either you, Wily, or even Mega Man himself can do to stop us!"

As if to celebrate this, Emit Man sent some of his own floating armor after Bass. These were all easily dodged, and Bass immediately shot through the new gaps in Emit Man's defenses. This proved to be unfortunate, as Bass' own blasts ended up becoming pieces of Emit Man's shielding. The enemy then sent the shots right back after Bass.

"So you're not just a cheap Junk Man rip-off."

Emit Man laughed. "Of course not. We Cain-bots are something more. You see-"

Bass wasn't interested in what he had to say, but this robot's words were definitely getting in the way of his fighting. It was Bass' only advantage. So he fired another volley, making a guess as to the shield's capacity.

"What? Trying that again? I'm afraid I overestimated you."

He didn't. The second attack immediately became part of the shield again, but before Emit Man could send the attack back to its sender, Bass had ripped a large rock from the ground, throwing it through the part of the shield made up of his own buster shots. The shots, of course, couldn't block the stone very well. Emit Man fell back, his shield suddenly failing and crumbling around him. And before he could say anything more to the dark robot standing over him, it was too late. Bass destroyed the arrogant Emit Man with ease.

"Fight, don't talk."

Bass' power absorption program went to work. He gained the power of the emit shield.

Going back to find Crystal, Bass couldn't wait to get out of there. After a day of being humiliated by Mega Man, searching after Crystal Bot, and fighting this talkative idiot, Bass was ready to leave. Unfortunately, that was not how the night was going to turn out.

"Ah, Forte-kun, you're back." Crystal Bot said as she finished getting a panel on the forlorn Treble back into place. "I've got bad news. To get Treble to fly long distance again, I need a replacement piece from the fortress, so that option's out. But I did use his communications circuit to get in touch with Dad. He's sending someone out to get us now."

"Great...just great." Bass growled. The last thing he wanted was to have to depend on Wily's inferior creations. He sighed. "It doesn't matter anyway. There's something I've got to do before we can go back. That Emit guy I just destroyed said that there's another Cain-bot out here, Psycho Man, and he's got a robot army going after the humans in town tonight. As much as I don't care about them invading the city itself, it's just best they be dealt with now before they become a problem."

"Okay." Crystal Bot said as she got back to her feet. "Let's go."

"No." Bass immediately objected. "You stay here and wait for Wily. I can handle this myself and I don't want you getting in the way."

"But...but I'm bored!" Crystal Bot whined. "Besides, you got to fight that other robot and see a cool explosion, but I didn't get to! I promise I won't be any trouble!"

Bass didn't feel like arguing about it. "Fine, whatever."

Treble, since he was weakened, stayed behind to wait. Bass was glad that at least one person with him was obedient. But Crystal did turn out to be useful in discovering where Psycho Man was, as she could hack into Emit Man's CPU and discover what knowledge Emit Man had about Dr. Cain's plans. They made their way to a secluded pier on the edge of town, one that looked like an area ripe for drug smuggling and other illegal activites. However, the presence of a ridiculous number of lobster-like mechanoloids and death spikes made such happenings more than a little difficult.

Bass dealt with the mechanaloids as Crystal Bot stood at the end of the pier and used Emit Man's arm to summon Dr Cain's submarine. It wasn't hard to find, as they had quite stupidly left a trail of instant death spikes just above the water's surface. Bass finished just as Crystal had managed to hack the submarine's computer to open the top hatch.

"Alright, we're going to have to hurry." Crystal Bot said. "They're pretty stupid for making it this easy to hack their sub, but eventually they'll get control of the sub back, and we can't wait around for them to do that. _Kaja_!"

She jumped into the water, heading straight for the instant death spikes.

"You idiot!" Bass yelled. "What are you doing?"

Crystal Bot landed harmlessly on the spikes, then turned, confused, to Bass. "What are you talking about? They're just instant death spikes."

Bass stared at her in disbelief.

"All robot masters are immune to them." Crystal Bot began to giggle. "Or...wait, is our own Forte-kun actually _vulnerable_ to these things?"

"I'm...I'm sure there's a reason for that!" Bass defended himself. "I'm sure you underpowered pieces of junk can deal with it, but robots like me are another matter entirely!"

Suddenly she stopped laughing. "Uh, Forte...we forgot something..."

The other robot turned from his fighting just long enough to look where she was pointing. Off in the distance, flying in on Rush, was Mega Man.

"Crap, Roll actually did get him..."

From behind them they heard movement from under the water, signalling another problem. It was Psycho Man and a horde of flying clock mechanaloids, each wielding lasers of their own. Psycho Man's looks lived up to his name, as he didn't seem to make sense at all. His arms weren't attached to him physically, but were held on by pure energy, flapping up and down for whatever reason. His legs were stretched out very long like rapier swords, and he was actually standing on the sub, with the rest of his body high up in the air. Around his neck was a circling collar with three electricity balls, and his head was a pair of bug eyes and a wide open mouth protected with a grate, not unlike the front of a knight's helmet.

"Better early than never!" Psycho Man exclaimed. "Cain army, do my bidding! Cain army, as I say! Cain army, blow them all away!"

"Why are all these Cain-bots so retarded?" Bass muttered. "This is ludicrous."

"I don't like your tone, little bug!" Psycho Man stared down at Bass with his always wide-open eyes. "So I'll squash you!"

With his huge stride, Psycho Man stepped clear from the sub to the shore in only two steps. Bass' first shots missed, as Psycho Man wasn't actually larger than him, just longer legged, and at his height and pace he wasn't easy to hit. Wishing for the life of him that Treble was fixed, Bass could only shoot from below as Psycho Man attempted to step on him. But being as Psycho Man's legs were fairly thin and not too difficult to avoid, he started with his second attack, which was an electrical pulse from the three energy balls on his collar. Three bolts of lightning shot down and went after the Cain-bot's adversary.

"That guy can't be a Wily-bot, or Bass probably wouldn't be fighting him...err, maybe." Mega Man said to Rush as they fought their way through the lesser robots to see what exactly was going on. "Maybe it malfunctioned...but with an entire army? Something isn't right..."

But in any case, as Mega Man neared the new robot, he took notice of the blue bomber right away.

"It's Rockman!" Psycho Man exclaimed. "As much as I would like to play with you today, I'm occupied right now. Here, play with this until I'm done."

Psycho Man's arms suddenly left him, then fit themselves together and formed a tiny clown-like robot. It was ridiculously fast, and it kept shooting its own electricity at Mega Man. The clown chased Mega Man, not only hitting him with his lasers, but crashing into him. Fortunately for Mega Man, he was able to convert to his new armor, then simply charge his weapon and wait for the right time to fire. The clown was down.

"Well, whoever this new robot is, he's not a good guy..." Mega Man remarked to Rush. "I was sort of hoping he would be."

Rush instead barked in the direction of the ground.

"What's wrong, Rush?" Mega Man asked.

Rush swooped down. Mega Man glanced at Bass and Psycho Man. Bass was winning, from what he could tell, and was able to destroy the three orbs. But the fight would go a little longer, so Mega Man went along with Rush for the time being. Rush landed, and Mega Man could see another robot, a rather shiny one at that, waiting behind an old bait shop. She was watching the battle against Psycho Man with an expression of pure glee.

"You must be Crystal Bot." Mega Man noted as he landed behind her. "What are you doing here?"

She started, turning around and trying to appear non-threatening. "Uh...I'm just watching the fight."

"You didn't think I would recognise you from earlier today, did you?" Mega Man lifted his blaster with determination. "Imagine my surprise when Roll contacted me and told me that you were in danger. How long did you think you could trick her?"

"Crap..." Crystal Bot grimaced. There went her easy means of technology.

"Look, I don't want to fight you." the Light-bot continued. "Just tell me what's going on. Who is that robot over there?"

"I don't have to tell you anything." Crystal Bot folded her arms, trying to hide her fear of having to defend herself against a much superior battle robot. "You can't make me. Figure it out for yourself, if you're so smart."

Megaman sighed. Why did they always have to do this the hard way? But Crystal Bot's memory card would probably have a lot of information in it, so Mega Man decided that he wouldn't destroy her, but try to capure her instead. But even as he attempted to fire, several purple shots hit him, and he lost his charge. A very angry and battle-worn Bass appeared, jumping in between Mega Man and the girl-bot.

"Leave her alone." Bass snarled. "She's just a piece of crap that can't even fight."

"You don't look any better yourself." Mega Man pointed out.

Crystal Bot was literally afraid. As confident as she usually was in Wily's robots normally, she had seen Mega Man's upgrades. There was no way in the world Bass could actually win this fight, especially as energy drained as he was at the time. Fortunately, he didn't have to. Even as Mega Man tried to fire, Treble tackled the blue bomber. Several jet mets and pipies appeared, as well as the Skull Cruiser, their means of escape.

"Treble, let's go!" Bass called out.

The dog more than happily ran after his master, and the Wily-bots got away, leaving the mets and mother birds to deal with Mega Man. As annoying as the mets were, the pipies were worse, letting their eggs drop on Mega Man and let loose the troublesome, hard-to-dodge robot baby birds. Mega Man hated pipies, but in the end managed to destroy them all.

"Rush, where are you?"

The red dog was near what was left of Psycho Man, sniffing at the CPU. He barked. Mega Man smiled. At least they would learn something from this encounter.

-t-

The Skull Cruiser wasn't the roomiest of vessels, as it only had a cockpit and a small storage room with a few seats on each side. Fortunately there was little in it at the time, just a few left over pipies and mets. Bass stepped over a couple of boxes and plopped down in a seat, exhausted. Treble went over and lay down at his feet, quietly putting his head down.

"Ooh, here's where I left my guitar." Crystal Bot squealed with glee as she found somewhere else to sit.

"What happened out there?" Ice Man, the current pilot of the Skull Cruiser, asked.

"It was a lot of fun-" Crystal Bot began cheerfully.

Bass cringed. It hadn't been fun at all for him. There was no telling what sort of spin Crystal Bot would end up putting on the whole series of events. "Basically Crystal got herself in trouble, lost, and in trouble again. I did all the work. You'll hear everything once we report to Wily."

A shadow fell over Bass and he opened his eyes again. It was Fire Man, offering him an E tank.

"Thanks."

Crystal Bot tried to glare at Bass as Fire Man returned to the front, but Bass wasn't paying any attention. She picked up her guitar and started to play Okkusenman, trying to annoy him. His face twitched, but he knew how to get back at her.

__

"Ribbit, ribbit."

With a final squealing strum, Crystal Bot suddenly stopped playing. Of all things, she hated it the worst when someone made fun of the fact she had Toad Man disease. She glared even more at Bass, who only grinned in response and continued to ignore her. But Crystal Bot had another idea; she quietly developed a little pink crystal when he closed his eyes again, thinking that she could get him to glitch. She snuck behind his seat and reached over.

Before she even got near, Bass's hand went up and caught her arm. "You flash too much to be sneaky. Now leave me alone."

He pushed her away, and she went off grumpily to her seat and stared complacently out of the window, not noticing when a pipi inadvertently flew overhead. Bass stuck out his blaster and fired. The bird squawked, dropping her payload on Crystal Bot's head.

"Forte!" Crystal Bot yelled as she suddenly found herself covered in birds.

"Team 5." Fire Man stated with an air of military bearing. "Do not provoke Bass."

Crystal Bot hated being called that, but seeing as it was no use, she just folded her arms and slouched silently, letting the little birds hop away.

/

Author's notes:

- I hope you like this chapter. I was inspired for Psycho Man and Emit Man from my iTunes library. The remaining Cain-bots, who I already came up with names for, are the same way. Yeah, there are eight of them total, but you'll only see one more in this story. Don't worry, the others will show up at some point, and you will be able to see their powers.

- Fire Man seems like a calm person to me, so in this story he's very soldier-like, professional and keeping his opinions to himself. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have opinions, and hates Team 5 as much as any other robot master does. I saw the Powered-Up version of him though, and apparently he's really redneck in that game. It's hilarious.

- Yeah, "pipi" is the official name for those mother birds that hold the eggs and drop them on you. They're so cute. :D Think of the Mega Man 2 version, with the little brown ones. I think they showed up in either Mega Man 7 or Mega Man and Bass, but those ones aren't as cute.

- _Kaja _is informal korean for "let's go". You'd only say that with your friends, not to elders, your boss - generally people you should respect.


	6. Sinister History

Back at the island, things were still a mess. Wily, Team 1, and the few robot master who had luckily escaped Cain's virus, had managed to disable everyone who had the virus. Still, there would be a lot of reprogramming work to be done, though many of the mechanaloids would end up being recycled rather than repaired. It just wasn't worth it to repair all of the lesser robots, and it would take too much time in any case. As Bass stepped out of the Skull Cruiser, he was realized that he was probably lucky to avoid the annoyance of having to deal with the infected robot masters here. Crystal Bot looked with pity on the broken robots strewn around as they made their way to the main computer lab. She wanted to help them, but that would have to wait until they had reported in to Wily.

Dr. Wily was in a better mood than he had been in that morning, which wasn't saying terribly much. He was still running around the main laboratory, trying to find the correct spare parts to put Burner Man back together. He brighted considerably, however, when Crystal Bot entered the room.

"Ah, Crystal Bot!" Dr. Wily immediately put down the large arm he was holding and approached. "Are you alright?"

She giggled. "Yes, Dad, I'm fine."

"What's this I hear then about your communication device? And your teleportation?"

"It's no big deal." Crystal said as Wily pulled her over to one of the robotic operations tables. "Ten minutes to fix tops. I just had a little trouble is all."

"Yes, I expect _someone_ wasn't doing his job." The doctor glared at Bass, who only folded his arms and rolled his eyes.

"Now Dad, don't get mad at Bass. He did a good job. He saved me from Mega Man once, but twice!" Crystal said cheerfully, pulling an UltraDisc out of her hood and trying to get Wily's attention with it. "And he distracted Mega Man long enough for me to get this information right here about Rock's new upgrades, as well as some other new nifty things from the labs of a certain Light _sahnsaengneem_."

"Distract, eh? Not destroy?" Dr. Wily's voice was tinged with disapproval.

"Hey, he was upgraded!" Bass snarled. "With some nice armor too! A lot better than you ever built for me!"

"More excuses? You're getting tiresome, Bass."

Crystal Bot didn't like the situation at all. Bass did deserve credit for her being alive and not imprisoned in Light Laboratories. "Um, buut not only that, Dad," she spoke quickly, "Bass was nice and destroyed three Cain robot masters today and Cain is the guy who started the virus. Didn't Bass do a good job there? He saved us a lot of trouble. C'mon Dad, I know that you're just grumpy from a long day of trying to deal with a huge workload. But I'm back now, so why don't you go take a rest? I can handle everything from here."

Her words did seem to have some effect on the overly aggravated doctor. "Alright, alright. But I'm going to at least repair your communications device first, and you tell me what you know about this Cain person. Get on the table and I'll be right back with a new transceiver. And you-" Wily turned to Bass. "-help the others bring the infected robots to the worklabs. That is, if you can manage to do that right."

Crystal tried one last time. "Dad-"

The door slammed behind Dr. Wily. Bass sighed and decided that he might as well do what he was told, but before he left, he spoke stubbornly to Crystal Bot.

"Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Defend me." Bass answered. "We both know that nothing's going to change Wily's mind."

"But it's not fair!" she insisted. "He shouldn't talk to you that way."

"Yeah, well, life's not fair." Bass said as he abruptly departed.

-t-

Back at Mega Man's lab, Roll felt like crying, though she didn't have the tear ducts to be able to do so. It was her fault that very classified information about Dr. Light's work had managed itself into the exact wrong hands.

"Rock, I'm so sorry..." Roll said miserably. "I can't believe I just randomly trusted some Wily-bot without even thinking to check her serial number."

"Don't be too upset at yourself." Rock smiled. "It wasn't too long ago that I let sent a broken robot to the labs thinking that he was a friend...yeah, that was a learning experience to say the least. Bass ended up wrecking the entire lab. I'm just glad you weren't there that day."

"Well, maybe if I had been I'd be more careful now." Roll admitted, despite feeling a little better. "But your upgrades...it won't be too long before Wily figures them out and uses them on his own creations."

"I can adapt, like I always do." Mega Man assured her. "Wily's never defeated me in the past and he won't now."

At that point, Auto, who had been working on the computer with Psycho Man's CPU, spoke up. "I think I've discovered who Cain is."

The other two listened with rapt attention as Auto continued. "Dr. Nikola Tesla Cain is a Croatian scientist who has been living in France for the past few years. His main area of study was internet and software technology, but many years ago when his sponsors refused to support his work any longer, he began to use his knowledge to hack into the most sophisticated and highly secure banks to fund his research. He's created some of the best spyware, computer viruses, and other security compromising software that the world has ever seen. However, he has somehow developed a pride in his criminal activities, and apparently it bothers him that people consider Dr. Wily a greater threat than him."

"That's the stupidest thing I ever heard." Mega Man smacked his forehead. "And we have to go against this?"

Auto nodded. "Dr. Cain apparently has done the math, and according to his numbers, he's stolen more money than what was spent to repair the damage done by Wily's schemes. So now Cain has gone into robotics, as it were, and has created eight robot masters, to prove his point."

"Wait," Roll said with disgust. "He wants to be better than Wily, so he simply imitates him? How pathetic!"

"Who are these robot masters?" Mega Man asked.

"First there were Psycho Man, Signal Man, and Emit Man, but you witnessed yourself Psycho Man's destruction. According to his CPU, Signal Man was destroyed early yesterday, and he merely lost contact with Emit Man. The others are Echelon Man, Bullet Man, Sight Man, Epic Man, and Algorythm Man."

"Catchy names..." Mega Man remarked in a voice that meant exactly the opposite. "Do we know what they'll do next?"

"It would be difficult to predict." Auto said. "But seeing as last night you and Bass ruined their plans to create havoc over the city, it will probably end up being something to catch everyone's attention again."

"I've got to be constantly on the watch then. Alright! I'll make sure the city stays peaceful, no matter what!"

-t-

Heat Man was heavier than he looked, Bass noted, and oddly shaped as well, making him not much fun to haul around the lab. Automated machines were handling most of the infected mechaniloids now, so all that was left to do was haul away the last of the robot masters to the main workstation to be repaired. They had been working all night, and finally the Wily-bots managed to get most of the robots into the fortresses' repair stations.

Usually Bass might have complained about the worthlessness of the robot masters, but today he remained silent. He was too busy thinking of Mega Man's upgrades. The thought of the superior armor depressed him. He could have been destroyed yesterday, and with relatively little trouble on Mega Man's part. And Bass couldn't stand the idea of Mega Man being superior to him, though he certainly wouldn't have admitted it aloud.

His thoughts were interrupted by Top Man, who was speedily skating by him on his wheeled boots. Bass had to wonder how drunk Wily was when he created Top Man, or for that matter, Spring Man, whose remains Top Man was carrying. Or trying to carry, as the slinky robot was very awkward to hold, especially for a robot that always preferred to go fast. Top Man kept dropping his head and legs, and in the effort to keep it all together and keep going, he crashed into a wall. Bass laughed out loud, thankful for the distraction.

"Shut up..." Top Man complained, as he attempted to untangle his legs from Spring Man's annoying twisty metal. "You think if I just threw Spring Man in the recycling that Wily would care?"

"I wouldn't tell on you." Bass shifted Heat Man more comfortably on his shoulder. "Jump in yourself and I wouldn't mention that either."

"It's no good talking to you." Top Man sniffed as he finally made it back to his feet. "Now I _could_ bring up the fact that you've never once bested Mega Man, ad nauseum, but coarse mockery is beneath me."

Bass decided that it was a good time to find out what his newly gained powers were. Now if he could only summon those blade-bombs that Emit Man had, that would take care of the giant orange toy. So the yellow parts of his armor turned red as he equipped Emit Man's power...and realized that it was just the emit shield. Heat Man and Spring Man suddenly turned from burdens into shielding, orbiting around him slowly.

He didn't entirely like the idea. "That's...creepy..."

"Convenient, you mean." Top Man was clearly impressed (and apparently the shield didn't pull in operational machines). "Did you get this from the Cain-bots?"

Bass wondered when Top Man had time to find out what happened. "Yeah...what else did I get?"

Turning from red to green and yellow, Bass equipped the signal shot, letting his unique shielding drop to the ground. He fired at Top Man, who ended up covered in the same yellow substance that worked its way in his joints and slowed him down as he attempted to get away. Bass kept firing, and until the first substance faded, he was able to shoot green pulse shot.

"That's not very mature!" Top Man said as he tried to both get away and wipe the substance off of his armor.

"Hey wait, there's one more weapon! Don't you want to see what it is?"

Bass' grin was large and evil as he equipped the psycho pulse. Unfortunately, all it did was electrify his hands. It couldn't even shoot out electrical beams of any sort.

"What crap is this?" Bass complained. staring at the worthless power in his hands.

If only Top Man was close enough for him to punch him in the face. But of course Top Man wasn't getting any closer. "Why thank you for volunteering to carry Spring Man for me, Bass!" Top Man called out as he hid behind a corridor. "You're so very generous!"

"Get back here you useless moron! I'm not doing your work for you!"

But Top Man was already gone. Grumbling, Bass had no choice but to haul both Heat Man and Spring Man to the robot workstations. He reequipped the emit shield and let their morbid and defunct faces orbit around him. He didn't care what Top Man said; that was entirely too creepy.

As he entered the lab, he noticed that Wily wasn't there. Crystal Bot was overseeing the repairs of the robot masters, though most of the work was being done by the automatic machines that lined the wall. Treble was also in one of the automatic machines, which surprised Bass, because he didn't think that Treble's injuries were bad enough to warrant being put in one of them. But he wasn't a technician, so he didn't question it.

"Where do you want these guys?"

"Just put them over by the door, where Cold Man is." Crystal Bot responded, looking up from the computer that tracked the progress of the repairs. "I'll get to them in a minute."

Bass nodded and dropped them to the side. As he did, he noticed a tiny, mechanical bird chirping at him. "What's that?

"That's my new assistant!" Crystal Bot giggled. "It's one of the pipies that you shot down on me yesterday. I named him Bruce. Well, that's his American name. I like how some of us have different names for Japan, so I decided that his Japanese name is Clef."

"Clef?" Bass sneered.

"Yeah, you know, like in music. A bass clef or a treble clef." Crystal Bot winked cleverly.

"No, definitely not. Change it."

"I can name him anything I want." Crystal said mischeviously. "And I decided I'm going to name him after my nice, good friend that gave him to me. Oh, but wait, I have a surprise for you too! C'mere!"

Bass rolled his eyes and followed impatiently as she led him to the one automated machine that wasn't currently working on a robot master. With the press of a button, the large door opened, revealing a new set of armor, designed to look exactly like Bass' current armor, except the colors were darker and richer. It also added several inches to Bass' overall height.

"You can't really see the upgrade it is just by looking at it." Crystal continued as she turned on a monitor next to the machine to prove her point. "But ever since I got the data behind Mega Man's upgrades, I've been thinking about it. Mega Man's problem with his armor is that he changes into his when he fights, because his is so heavy and constricting there are times when he's better off without equipping it. However, I've also been thinking about Dad's Armoroids, as well as several new smoldering techniques I've been researching on the internet for some time. This is the result of all that work: a new, lighter armor that's about five times stronger than yours right now, and is less than half the weight. I even made something similar for Treble." Crystal Bot grinned and giggled. "Do you like it?"

Bass stared wordlessly at the armor, the monitor, and then the armor again. Slowly he revealed his teeth in a way that a vampire does when it sees the perfect victim. This was the best news he'd had in weeks, and maybe even years.

"When can this be installed?" he asked, his gaze not leaving the new armor.

"In just a few minutes, but I want to make sure your weapons upgrade is good to go first."

Bass turned to face her, trying not to show how eager he was. "There's more?"

"Oh yes." If Bass hadn't been in such a good mood, Crystal Bot's excessive giggling would have driven him nuts. "Remember how I asked you about shooting both busters at the same time? Well, I've been working a bit on that, and I think I have at least a temporary solution. I learned last night that the reason you can't fire both at the same time is power distribution. You can't put that kind of fire power in a robot your size without either making you explode or making you too bulky to be any good in a fight. However, my energy crystals are a safe power source, so it won't interfere with your regular energy. I need to make sure the crystals are the right size, so let me see your blasters a minute."

Crystal Bot's built-in orbs flashed, and instantly a pink crystal appeared in her hands. Bass backed away.

"_kenchanna_, _kenchanna_. " Crystal smiled. They're just regular energy crystals, and they can't act as instant death spikes without being constantly stabilized. Now get over here."

She removed the cover from his arm cannons and carefully sized the pink crystals as she went on. "Okay, the downside to this is that it'll be basically like a weapon you get from a defeated robot master: it has limited usage, though it can be refueled with a regular energy power-up. However, the crystals do make your regular shots stronger as well, being as they act as a sort of conduit, so whether or not you're using both at the same time, your shots will cause more damage. There, that's good. Now try on your new helmet while I get this machine set up, and our little Forte-kun can get in and have the armor installed."

Bass pulled off his original helmet and put it aside, revealing for once his short, blonde hair. "_Little_ Forte? I'm taller than you."

"No, no, not little in that sense. Little as in younger."

"Whatever. I know you've haven't been around here that long." Bass put the new helmet on, impressed already with its fit and low weight.

It was Crystal's turn to roll her eyes, though she giggled as she did so. "Forte, I'm Team 5. I've been around since before you were a twinkle in Dad's eye. Now go away for a minute and let me get this ready."

Bass did walk away, but it bothered him that Crystal Bot said she was older. But she was a part of Team 5, and they did predate him. All the same, he couldn't remember having seen her before the past two or three years. If he didn't usually spend his time as far away from the Skull Fortress as he was allowed to go and didn't ignore the robot masters as much as he did, he could have been more certain about her age. But for all he knew, it was possible she was older.

With remarkable timing, Wave Man entered, bearing Bubble Man on his back and dumping him with the other robots expecting repair.

"Hey Wave, you're Team 5, right?" Bass asked.

"You couldn't tell that already by the incessant mockery?" Wave Man said in a mildly amused manner. "But yes, that is the team I belong to. Why do you ask?"

"It's about Crystal Bot. I know you guys were built before me, but I don't remember her being around at all when I showed up. What's the deal with that? Was she always hiding in the back, working on something?"

Wave Man sighed. "No, Bass. You're older than her. Far older, in fact."

"Then why does she think she is?"

The aquatic robot just muttered, "It doesn't matter...you don't want to know."

"Well now I'm curious, so hurry up and tell me." Bass' threatening tone showed that he didn't appreciate anyone keeping secrets from him.

Wave Man didn't argue about it. "A long time ago, I was not in charge of Team 5. Instead there was Crystal Man. Now, at that time, we were merely a tactic; Wily used us and the whole 'Dark Man' trick to delay Mega Man so that he could get ready for his next plans. The Team 6 scheme was already getting underway when we were fighting Mega Man, and we were merely trying to help them succeed. No one actually expected us to win, as we were and still are the weakest of the robot masters. After we were defeated, Wily decided to turn Crystal Man into a technical assistant, programming him so that he could help Dr. Wily around the lab. I suspect that Crystal Man even had a hand in building you. Are you sure you don't remember him at all?"

Bass shook his head. "The old man might have deleted him from my memory. But go on."

"Since we were first made, the other robot teams have been constantly critical of us, and Crystal Man never got used to it. He instead decided to use his new knowledge to improve us and make us battle worthy, so that no one could ever mock us again. Wily, however, wouldn't let him. I believe he was insulted that Crystal Man would even want to improve on his designs, as illogical as that seems. So Crystal Man decided that he would create a robot that would upgrade us without Wily suspecting anything. Hence Crystal Bot. I suspect he was secretly working on her ever since you were built, though with little success for years. Even robots that are programmed to build are usually not very creative, and Crystal Man wasn't given much knowledge by Wily.

"Only when eight Light-bots were made into robot masters did Crystal Man finally complete her. She was only three feet high when she was first made, so that she could hide easily from Dr. Wily, but unfortunately, things didn't work out so well. I was with Wily when he found her, shortly after her completion. Needless to say, Dr. Wily was furious, and had every intention of destroying her. However, Crystal Man hadn't made her to rebel, so she was already loyal to Wily, and besides that he found her charming and very helpful. And he did need a crystal creating robot for easy funding for his schemes, so he allowed her to live, removing whatever programs and memories Wily believed would prevent her from being completely loyal."

"What happened to Crystal Man?"

"His CPU was destroyed, and Wily used the rest of him to upgrade Crystal Bot to what you see now."

"That's pretty harsh, even for the old man." Bass commented. "But why don't you tell her?"

"We're forbidden. That, and what good would it do?" Wave Man shrugged. "It would get us either scrapped or reprogrammed for our trouble, even if Crystal Bot didn't believe us. Besides, she's happy enough. Why spoil that?"

It was good enough reasoning, Bass figured. And whatever kept her building upgrades was fine by him. He looked in Crystal Bot's direction, noticing that she was trying on his old helmet, though it was definitely too big, and her auburn hair kept sticking out of the front. Seeing him looking at her, she giggled.

"I'm a cuter Forte than you!" she called out.

Bass facepalmed, as Wave Man's internal water gurgled in a way that might have been a laugh.

__

Wily definitely had to have messed her personality up when he reprogrammed her...

"Sure, come on."

Bass returned to the automated machine, more than eager to try out his new upgrades. "Are you sure this will help me defeat Mega Man?"

Crystal Bot giggled. "Of course. But remember, it's not about the upgrades. Knowing what to do with them is more than half the battle. You're really smart, Forte-kun. Of course you can defeat Mega Man. You're the best fighter-bot ever! Make a really big and cool explosion when you take him out, okay?" She gave him a thumbs up.

"I'll do my best." Bass responded in a surprisingly cheerful tone. No one (besides himself) had ever called him the best before. As he got into the machine, and the door was shut behind him, he couldn't help but think how handy it was to have Crystal Bot around, even as annoying as she was. He started to think that her origins might be useful for his own goals.

_Once this is done, and I kill Rock, I'm telling her everything._

Allowing several metal claws to grab and hold him steady as the machine began its work, Bass shut himself down.

__

Wave Man watched for a minute as Crystal Bot started the machine up, and sparks and noises started to emerge from it. From the look on her face, it was easy to see that she enjoyed her work. She was just like her creator.

/

Author's notes:

- I don't think explained Crystal Bot's crystal generation very well. While she has all the normal weapons Crystal Man does, she can also just randomly generate two kinds of crystals. There's the blue kind, which already starts out three feet long when she generates it, and it's used for building or self defense. The pink kind generates at only four inches, and is used to power things. She can make them bigger if she wants to, but she has to stand there, and make them grow bit by bit.

Bass thought before saying out loud, "Is that thing ready yet?" 


	7. Loyalty's Cost

With the machines humming and working at their correct capacity, Crystal Bot decided that she would have time for a little excursion. All of the remaining damaged robot masters were in the automated machines, Treble was almost done, and Forte had a while before he would be complete. The main problem was that while she had cured the Cain virus for now, she wasn't sure how well their antivirus programs would do against Dr. Cain in the future, especially if the new villain decided that his original viruses weren't good enough. Crystal Bot had discovered that all of the robot masters that had been in the robot museum had at least three or four viruses each, but most of the invasive programs were ineffective due to Wily's security measures. Fortunately Dr. Cain hadn't been able to get the virus that actually worked on every one of the CPUs, but still, she wanted to make sure that it wouldn't happen again.

So she turned on the communications panel to the main computer room, before realizing that it was still fairly early in the morning. Wily wouldn't be up yet, most likely, and if he was, then she would have to berate him for not getting enough sleep. Crystal laughed to herself. What was it with scientists and trying to never sleep?

Crystal Bot walked by Bass' machine and checked the time. He had about three hours to go. Normally new armor wouldn't take that long, but her new anti-virus precautions were carefully checking and double-checking his system. She wasn't going to let the robot she had worked hardest on get taken by some half-wit embezzling idiot. Of course Crystal Bot had found out Dr. Cain's history, as he had left a surprising amount of his story on Emit Man's hard drive. He wanted them to know who he was. Nikola Cain was very bold, arrogant, and stupid. He shouldn't advertise himself. Wily would see to it that he didn't last long.

The girl-bot looked one more time at the Bass' repair station and smiled.

"Bruce, make sure everything is stable while I'm out, okay? Oh, and tell Dad I'm out to get some supplies."

The pipi tweeted cheerfully in reply.

"Yeah, I know. But I don't want to be stuck in the lab. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get to see Forte finally take down Mega Man. Though I know Dad won't want me to stay out too long today, especially by myself. Fire Man's going to be leaving soon to go see what he can find out about Dr. Cain's activities, and I'll catch a ride with him and get what I need while he's out. Fire Man's really irritating and strict, but since Dad lets me pretty much do what I want, I'll be able to go on my own after we get there."

Bruce's next tweets were a question.

"Oh, _kenchanna_. I don't need to be guarded twenty-four seven. Most humans don't even think I'm a Wily-bot. I can go in a store and buy off of the shelves. And some of the people who know about me don't even care because I never steal from _them_. It's no problem at all. I'll just fix something for them or give them a crystal." Crystal Bot headed for the door. "See you later!"

-t-

Mega Man patroled the city on Rush, wondering why in the world Dr. Cain hadn't been better prepared. If he was after Dr. Wily, why had he attempted to attack the city, as miserable as that attack was? It took Mega Man a moment to occur that that attempt had meant to be nothing more than a distraction to keep the blue bomber occupied. But from what? Was Emit or Psycho Man planning something else before they were destroyed?

For once Mega Man was actually grateful for Bass' help. As violent as Bass had always been, at certain times he was an arbitrary help, such as when they had defeated King together. True, that was only because Bass wanted to get back at Wily for building that robot, but that did help save people. Bass was better than he believed himself to be. The competition between them was ridiculous.

Megaman's thoughts went back to the task at hand. He knew eventually Dr. Cain would want to find out the secret location of the latest Wily fortress on the latest Skull Island. Rock knew firsthand that they were not easy to find, especially if Wily hadn't actually released any robot masters that would know. But when Cain did, he'd unleash a likely nasty invasion, one that he would try his hardest to get publicized. Cain was a basically a diva.

"I wish I could talk to this guy, Rush." Megaman said as they flew over the city's large park, waving at a few children who were playing there. "Maybe he's not as bad as he sounds. I sure don't like the idea of another lunatic out there. Rush...I should have done something about Wily a long time ago. If only I had done something to prevent his constant escaping...I knew what to expect!"

Rush barked at him, reminding him not to talk about himself that way.

"I know...but in the end- what's that?"

Mega Man pointed ahead. There was a strange formation of flying robots ahead, possibly mechanaloids, Rock guessed. There were six triangular wedges flying in perfect formation together, and they were headed in his direction. Robots are incapable of sixth sense, but as strange as things had been lately, Mega Man guessed it would be better if he charged his buster and changed into his heavy armor, just in case.

The brick-red wedges surrounded him, flying around, and before he could get in a good shot, they swooped in and touched their points in, suddenly frying him with a nasty attack, one that blasted Megaman with high-temperature shocks. Megaman's own charge was used against him, damaging several internal circuits. He started falling towards the ground, but his circuitry was quick to recover. Rush was smart as well; he bit at one of the wedges and threw it out of its place in the formation, and this seemed to disrupt the strange enemy. Flying in, the dog managed to catch Mega Man before he hit the ground (and an inconveniently placed hot dog stand).

Determined not to let them get the drop on him again, Mega Man just simply shot at the pieces, which suddenly came back together to form a vaguely humanoid and surprisingly boring looking robot master, whose face seemed to have been built into a permanently stern and military expression.

"You're one of Cain's, I presume? Let me guess...Epic Man?"

"No. I am Echelon Man."

"Well I was close. It started with an 'e'." Megaman charged his shot and fired.

Splitting into several parts again, Echelon Man dodged the shot and flew forward, his six pieces seemingly trying to fry Mega Man a second time. It didn't work, but he came together again behind Mega Man and fired off two large blaster shots that swirled after Mega Man in a circular motion, making dodging them a rather tricky ordeal. But Mega Man wasn't the hero for nothing. He managed in several shots, and as Echelon Man split again, he even destroyed two of his parts.

What was left of Echelon Man was furious. Three of his remaining parts distracted Mega Man while the fourth managed to knock him down to the ground successfully. He was hit so hard that he literally scraped against the ground and ran into a public mailbox. Thankful for his new armor, Mega Man quickly looked around to get his bearings. He was in the shopping district, and as it was still early in the day, not too many people were out and about. He didn't think any of them would be in too much danger, as long as he took out Echelon Man quickly.

Echelon Man didn't plan to go quietly. His parts circled around, and though Mega Man was able to prevent them from striking himself all at once, the triangles did manage to get in a shot or two individually. Mega Man's speed wasn't good enough in his super armor, so he had to convert back to his regular armor to be able to take out two more of the triangle wedges and regain the upper hand.

The other two parts rejoined to make the now very thin Echelon Man humanoid form. Mega Man used this opportunity to fire another charged shot at him. This wiped out a lot of Echelon Man's energy, and he began to get desperate, seeing as the tides were turning against him. Instead of aiming at Mega Man, who was now obviously going to emerge the victor, he got an idea and shot one of his attacks at the wall of a store behind Rock. This, while allowing Mega Man the time to finish Echelon Man off, caused a huge chunk of the brick wall to land on the bomber.

Rush ran up, barking in worry.

"I'm alright, Rush..." Mega Man struggled to get back to his feet, but found himself unable. The clump of brick and mortar that fell on his back and right arm was simply too heavy for him at that angle, since he was held flat against the ground. "Just go get help. I'll be fine until you get back."

Obedient, the red dog ran off, converted into jet form, and then zoomed off. Mega Man observed his surroundings, trying to see if any humans were hurt when the building was shot. Fortunately, most of the damage was done to the building and not to any people, who could only complain of bruises and minor bleeding (though one lady was fairly vocal about the unsightly rip in her panty hose). The building, despite losing a huge portion of the wall, seemed stable for the time being. So Mega Man stop letting himself worry and just awaited the construction crew that would undoubtedly be coming. But as he turned to the ruins of Echelon Man, he immediately began to worry again.

Crystal Bot was standing over what was left of the now defunct Cain-bot, and she squealed a little as she noticed that his CPU was still intact. Hacking into it, she grinned and giggled, then slipped it into her hood. Then she reached down and pulled out the power chip of Echelon Man, then turned to Mega Man.

"Thanks, Mega." she smiled sweetly, if a little sarcastically. "It's so nice of you to provide a new weapon for Forte and save him the trouble of having to deal with another stupid Cain-bot. It must be annoying to have been pinned down by some _pahbohyah _like that, _ne_?"

She walked over to a wide-eyed Mega Man, who was now wishing that Rush would hurry. He tried to activate his blaster, but the way his was pinned prevented him from being able to get the right angle to shoot at her, so she merely stepped over his arm and out of his reach, leaning casually against the brick chunk.

"Y'know Rock, after checking out that guy's head," Crystal Bot continued. "I found out a little something about him. Echelon Man was specifically designed to assassinate you. His weapon, the echelon heatshock, is meant to create unnatural temperatures for metal. Now, you're a pretty strong bot, I'll give you that, but even now you're overheating. That would normally not be too big of a deal, and probably your circuitry is trying to do something about it. But now that you're being weighted down, the combination of heat and pressure is ever so slowly warping your metal frame. Once it goes down and hits your power core, you'll explode all nice and pretty. I know your systems, Mega, and you're not going to be able to rid yourself of the heatshock in time. Don't you wish your super armor was still activated?"

"Hey, leave him alone!" a man shouted at her.

"Back off now, fleshling." Crystal Bot winked gleefully. "I'm not exactly programmed with the three laws in mind, you know."

"Get out of here!" Rock exclaimed at the stranger. "Don't get yourself hurt! Just go!"

As the man did (while calling the police on his cell phone), Crystal Bot turned back to him, then flashed and created a pink crystal.

"I like explosions a lot, Mega Man, and I'm afraid I'm not patient enough to wait for Echelon Man's revenge, and Rush would probably be back by then anyway. I don't know if you know this, but I can make and stabilize my own instant death spikes. Don't move now, okay?" she giggled at her own joke.

Mega Man cringed and closed his eyes. He never expected that he would die like this. But as he expected his systems to collapse with a sudden burst of energy, he felt the weight lifted from him. He tried to get up, only to have the small pink crystal touch him and make him glitch, but only for a moment. Crystal Bot tinkered with something on his back, then stepped back and allowed Rockman to stand. Checking his internal systems, he noticed that the technician had repaired an error in his coolant processor.

"What...what was that?" he asked. "Why are you helping me?"

Crystal Bot giggled. "Oh, I'm not helping you. Not really, anyway. It's just that I don't really care how or when you die, but it's really important to Forte-kun to be the one to destroy you. And he would just hate me forever if I killed you in such a cheap way, when you can't do anything about it."

"Won't you get in trouble with Dr. Wily?" Mega Man asked, puzzled.

"Ah, but he won't find out. Our monitoring system, piece of crap that it is, is broken right now. Dad decided he'd buy one and save himself the trouble of having to build it, but let me tell you, there aren't that many decent technology dealers out there. I'm really disappointed. So you just keep this our secret, okay? And don't tell Forte either. He's so cool! Not like the robot masters." Crystal Bot frowned at the thought of them. "They're always so mean to my team, Team 5. So maybe we're not the greatest robot masters in the world, but that doesn't mean they should treat us like we're not fellow Wily-bots."

Mega Man almost laughed. "Um, doesn't Bass hate all of the robot masters?"

"Well yeah, but he hates us _equally_. He doesn't make fun of Team 5 any more than he would the others. It's so sweet how he's so non-judgemental. And he blows stuff up and he's the strongest, and that makes him awesome!"

The blue bomber definitely disagreed with her assessment of Bass, but he didn't question it, but instead asked, "Team 5...which robots were those?"

"Pssht, you know, Napalm Man, Wave Man, Gyro Man...don't you remember them?"

"Them I remember, but not you." Mega Man thought for a moment. "Wait, didn't you used to be Crystal Man?"

Crystal Bot laughed. "Oh, go get your memory circuits checked, Mega. I was never a guy-bot. Wow, remembering back then...you were such a jerk. I can't believe you actually told a reporter that fighting Gravity Man was fun. The other robot masters nearly tore him apart when they saw that in the news. You're so inconsiderate. Oh, and speaking of you being a jerk, why in the world does Roll clean your lab all by herself?"

"Well, that's what she's programmed to do. She enjoys it..."

"Whatever, you bum." Despite her insults, her tone remained cheerful. "Because you're so mean, I made this for her."

Turning back to her bags, which had remained forgotten near the side of the store she had previously emerged, she pulled out a strange green metal box. It was rectangular, with four metal claws sticking out of each of the longer sides. One of the shorter sides had two round red eyes in it.

"This is Dub the spider-bot, Roll's new assistant!" Crystal Bot explained. "I designed him with some nice spiffy features, so make sure she gets him, okay?"

"No way!" Mega Man exclaimed. "I'm not letting another Wily-bot in my lab! How do I know it's really what you say it is?"

Pushing a button on the mechanaloid, Crystal let it go. Instantly the eight claws extended, revealing long metal extentions. The claws opened and became feet, then began to carry the robot away.

"Don't worry, Rock, it knows the way to the lab." Crystal winked. "So I suppose you'll have to go after it and let me go now. Oh, and by the way, I upgraded Forte-kun last night, and he should be done about now. So hurry up and get ready for when he comes to get you, and make sure to explode nice and pretty when he beats you!"

She picked up the rest of her bags and contentedly began walking away. A frustrated Mega Man tried to decide if it was better to go after Crystal Bot, but in the end he couldn't bear to risk letting something happen to Roll, so he quickly ran off to the lab.

-t-

Dr. Wily dropped the screwdriver he was holding. A nerve on his forehead throbbed and bulged as he gritted his teeth and stared at the image before him on the viewscreen, which he had been working on that morning. The monitoring systems were repaired, and he couldn't believe what he had just seen. It was treason.

Elec Man and Cut Man had never seen him so angry, and they backed away uncertainly. They looked at each other, wondering if they should say something to their master to try and calm him down. But they both instantly and silently agreed that speaking to him would be futile. After what had happened, what could they say?

Dr. Wily furiously began pushing buttons on the control panel, getting into audio/visual contact with Fire Man.

"Yes...Doctor...?" Even the usually stoic Fire Man couldn't help but react to Wily's mood, and his eyes widened with fear.

"Get Crystal Bot back here NOW!"

"Is there something...er, what happened...?"

"DON'T ASK QUESTIONS, JUST DO IT!" Wily shouted, and Fire Man nodded and ran off without another word.

"YOU TWO!" Both Elec Man and Cut Man jumped as Wily turned his attention to them. "Get an automated machine ready. I've let Crystal Bot have far too much freedom for too long! It's about time she was reprogrammed!"

As they both ran quickly to the main repair station to obey, Cut Man cringed. Reprogramming was one of the worst punishments a Wily-bot could face. Crystal Bot would soon be as simple and obedient as a mechanaloid. Cut Man almost pitied her. Elec Man however, was able to grin. He had always hated Crystal, and now she was finally getting what she deserved.

Bass emerged from the automated machine, and he was impressed. The armor was just a light as Crystal Bot claimed it would be, and his joint upgrades felt wonderful. Treble, who had finished well before Bass, lifted his head from its resting position and wagged his tail as his master approached. Just to try it out, Bass equipped his double blasters and watched as both of his hands converted into cannon form, ready to fire.

"This is awesome!" he exclaimed, his expression growing more gleefully evil by the second. "Mega Man doesn't stand a chance! Crystal B- Crystal? _Chigum odee-ehyo_?"

He stopped himself and turned to the monitor that still displayed his upgrades. It was witness that she had indeed installed korean in him.

"Ugh, I really should look at the upgrades before I let her install them." Bass groaned. "Who knows what she'd put in me just for the fun of it?"

Bruce flew down from his perch on top of one of the computer screens and landed on Bass' shoulder, tweeting. Bass noticed that where Bruce's tweets had been merely noises before, he could now understand that Bruce was trying to give him a message from Crystal Bot, who had said "good luck" and "make sure to record the fight so I can see it later", as well as "_Bbashya_!"

"Alright, I guess I'm off." Bass said. "But you tell her that I said that she can't just install whatever she wants, and that I've got something to tell her next time I see her."

Bruce chirped in compliance before returning to the computer, tapping something on a keyboard with his little feet. Bass and Treble departed, just in time to miss hearing the sound of metallic footsteps pounding down the hall at a fast pace. The door reopened not more than a minute later, and Cut Man appeared.

"Bass...?" Cut Man called out, his voice revealing the fear he still felt. "Dr. Wily is looking for you! Bass?"

Cut Man wandered throughout the room, noticing the now empty automated workstation that Bass had just emerged from. The monitor told him that the repairs were complete. He was too late.

"AAAUGH! What am I going to tell Wily? He'll cut me down if I show up without Bass!" Cut Man whined, seemingly unable to stop his puns even when no one could hear them. "I'm timber now!"

\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Thank you to all my reviewers! Y'all had a lot of sweet things to say, and I'm so glad you enjoy the story. And I guess I'll keep on with the korean. :D

- _Pahbohyah _means "idiot" or "stupid person". Alternatively, you can say _pahboh _to just mean stupid. _Chigum odee-ehyo _means literally "now where is?", as a lot of the time in korean you can speak without actually saying the subject of the sentence, as long as the subject is implied elsewhere in the conversation. So basically Bass was saying "where is she now?", though he could have used the exact same phrase to ask where anything or anyone else is. _Bbashya _means "fighting" and is a korean cheer to encourage people. Other cheers like this include _aja aja_! and even just saying "fighting" in english.

- The next two chapters are totally my favorites! A lot of neato stuff happens, so be sure to come back and see, okay?


	8. The Difference

The Skull Cruiser went over the city with little interference. Fire Man was surprised that no one tried anymore, but it was better to get away before Mega Man found them. Thankfully Crystal Bot hadn't been hard to find, and Ice Man had the Cruiser waiting for them. Wily hadn't contacted Ice Man, but Fire Man had been able to convince him of the severity of Wily's mood, so Ice Man was unusually quiet, already cringing. Fire Man looked back in the small storage space. Crystal Bot, unbothered by the movement of the aircraft, paced back and forth. Noticing the Team 1 robot looking at her, she spoke.

"Are you sure he was okay?" she asked with urgency. "Did he look hurt? What was behind him?"

Fire Man knew she was speaking of Wily. "He seemed...well, normal, other than being extremely angry. Cut and Elec were behind him, but they didn't say anything."

"The computers were okay?"

"As far as I know."

"And he just said to come get me?"

The Team 1 robot nodded. "He was very adamant about it."

Crystal Bot cringed and gritted her teeth. "I just know that Cain did something...Dad must need my help to clean it up. Oh that stupid Cain! I can't believe how stressed out he's making Dad! We've got to get him soon!"

Fire Man didn't respond. He wasn't an expert on human emotion, being a robot, but it didn't seem to him that Crystal Bot's theory was correct. But what did he know? Whatever the problem was, he hoped that it would be dealt with quickly. Dr. Wily's plans had already been ruined, and this additional problem would only bring more trouble for the robots that worked for him.

-t-

Bass was starting to get impatient. He didn't like waiting for anything, and now that he had his new armor and weapons, he was even more impatient than usual for the blue bomber to arrive. But he wasn't too bored. It was entertaining to watch the humans run screaming from him as he walked down the center of the busy Monstropolis road. He didn't even have to bother firing at anyone; they just took one look at him and ran away, and those in cars would swerve and hit the gas. Only a little boy had been too naiive to bother running, but his mother had the sense to pick him up and go. Yet even despite this entertainment, Bass was tired of waiting. Even Treble beside him seemed ready for action.

"Where is that moron?" Bass complained to his dog. "You'd think one of these idiots would think to call the police and tell them to get Rock down here."

Some unwitting teenager on a bicycle had turned from a side road onto the street, only to find himself riding perilously close to Bass, who noticed and stuck out his arm. The teen boy didn't have time to react, so he smacked headfirst into the robot's arm and fell off the bike, only to lay bleeding and barely conscious on the street.

Bass laughed and walked on. Humans were so fragile. As he went forward, however, he heard someone talk behind him.

"Hey, thanks for getting my bike back from that guy!" a young boy, sound probably twelve years old, said to the robot.

Bass grimaced. He wasn't anyone human's friend, especially not some kid's. He turned back and narrowed his eyes. The kid immediately grabbed the bike and rode off as fast as he could.

"Hmph." Bass muttered. "Alright, now what do I do? What's going to get the dweeb to get out here faster?" His eyes widened as he remembered something. Grinning in an absolutely wolf-like manner, Bass walked faster. This was going to be fun.

-t-

"You mean he doesn't have any loyalty to Wily at all?" Mega Man asked with astonishment as he walked into the room, helmet under his arm.

Mega Man, Auto and Roll were gathered in the mostly empty workstation, meant for the cleaning and maintanence of larger vehicles. Roll had been doing some cleaning that morning, only to be interrupted by the entrance of a green metal box with eight clawed legs. It hadn't attacked her, but simply stole her dustrag and climbed to the ceiling, wiping the hanging lights free of dust with a passion. Only with Beat's help did they manage to get the mechaniloid down, shut him off, and plug him into their computer. Mega Man had arrived shortly thereafter, but had spent the past half-hour being seen to by Auto while the computer had been scanning Dub.

"None whatsoever." Auto replied. "This 'Dub' appears to have little programming at all, mainly just simple cleaning techniques and methods. Its directive is to obey Roll, nothing more. It has no weaponry or explosives at all."

"She...she did say she was going to build me one." Roll mentioned slowly. "I didn't think she would actually do it...I told her not to."

"What is it with Crystal Bot?" Mega Man scratched his head. "Making an assistant for Roll...helping me...why did she do it?"

"Wait, she helped you?" Roll's eyes widened.

"Yeah. She pulled a load of brick off of me and repaired my coolant system. She didn't install any hidden programs at all, according to Auto."

"Not just that." Auto added. "Your coolant system is now 5% more efficient."

"Oh no." Mega Man facepalmed and groaned. "She said Bass was on his way, and she wanted me to be ready to fight him. Apparently he's been upgraded. Auto, how am I for fighting?"

"While most of your systems are fine, some of your internal supports are still compromised from the heatshock." Auto shook his head. "They won't be able to be as strong as normal. They're about 85% right now, though with your new armor equipped it's higher, at 117%."

"That's pretty good." Megaman replaced and adjusted his helmet. "I'll just have to work with that. Upgraded or not, Bass is a lot of trouble. If I leave him alone for too long, he'll end up doing something horrible in the city. He doesn't like to wait."

"I wish Bass would go away for good." Roll wrinkled her nose. "It's bad enough we have to deal with Cain."

"Well, for now you two keep an eye on Dub. Keep him in this room, and maybe turn him on for a while to see what he does. Just don't let him leave."

Roll looked worried. "You've fought Bass before, Rock, and it's never been easy. I don't want you to go when you're not in your best condition."

"It's alright." her brother smiled cheerfully. "I've always defeated him. How upgraded could he be?"

-t-

Just as soon as the rear door of the Skull Cruiser opened, Crystal Bot hopped out and made very determined steps directly towards Dr. Wily's main lab. Fire Man, however, was a little more reluctant to face a furious Wily. Instead, as Ice Man shut down the cruiser, he cautiously got out and asked a nearby Magnet Man what was going on. Magnet Man whispered something to him, and immediately Fire Man's countenance changed; he turned and glared violently at the departing girl-bot, the flames on his head spouting a little higher than before.

Crystal Bot, unaware, continued down the hall only slightly less cheerfully then she usually would, certain that whatever the problem was, she and her "dad" would be able to solve it together. Only when she passed by an upset Gyro Man and Charge Man did she stop.

"Why did you have to do it?" Charge Man asked her, his expression showing terrible grief. "Couldn't you have just walked away or something?"

"Why did I do what now?" a confused Crystal Bot asked.

But Charge Man just looked down instead of answering. She looked over at Gyro Man, who looked at her with both anger and sadness. Stubbornly he turned away, deliberately refusing to acknowledge her. A large shadow fell over Crystal, and she turned around to see Guts Man. She smiled. Out of all of the Team 1 robots, she liked Guts Man the best. He wasn't the smartest robot in the world, but he was the nicest of the robot masters, and because he was such good friends with Stone Man, Guts Man was actually not unkind towards the Team 5 robots.

"Hi, Guts Man!"

The older robot's stiff expression didn't change. "Crystal Bot, Dr. Wily needs you in the main laboratory. I'm supposed to bring you there now."

"Oh, right! I have to help Dad! _Kaja_!"

And the two went off. Gyro Man angrily watched them go, then just as they turned a corner and went out of sight, he punched a wall. Charge Man just sighed. Gravity Man walked towards them both, no less upset than they.

"It's not fair." Gravity Man said quietly. "First we lose Crystal Man, and now her."

Charge Man chimed in. "And look at her! She's still thinking of helping Wily! Not a clue at all that he might know everything!"

"Oh, shut up." Gyro Man said through gritted teeth. "She knew what she was doing. She could have ended our troubles forever, but no, she had to go and make sure Bass could fight Mega Man. That stupid Bass! It's his fault Crystal Bot is going to be reprogrammed!"

"Not only that, but the rest of us are in trouble too..." Gravity Man added. "I don't think we'll be able to go without being reprogrammed either, knowing Wily."

"Isn't there something we could do to save her?" Gyro Man desperately tried to get the others to think.

"What can we do?" Charge Man said gloomily. "Once the doctor has his mind set, it's hard to change him."

-t-

Crystal Bot entered the main lab, suspecting nothing. All she saw before her was the main supercomputer, with Cut Man standing off to the right side, noticably afraid of their boss and trying to stay as far away as he could without leaving the room. Elec Man, however, was to the left, and the expression on his face was one of dark glee. He grinned sharply at Crystal as she arrived, saying nothing to her. Guts Man stood silently at the door, cautiously letting the girl-bot go on without him.

"I - I'm here, Dad!" Crystal Bot said cheerfully, despite being not a little disturbed by the moods of the other robots in the room. "Please tell me what's going on. What's the problem? I can fix it!"

Wily turned around, his face reddened and twisted with anger. Crystal Bot stepped back, glitching a little in fear. Wily had never been angry at her before. She stepped back again, only have Guts Man grab her arm, shaking his head with disapproval.

"What...what's wrong?" Crystal Bot stared uncomfortably at her master.

Dr. Wily was too furious to speak, so instead he gestured to Elec Man, who pushed a button on the computer console. The main screen lit up with a scene of Monstropolis.

__

"Won't you get in trouble with Dr. Wily?"

"Ah, but he won't find out. Our monitoring system, piece of crap that it is, is broken right now. Dad decided he'd buy one and save himself the trouble of having to build it, but let me tell you, there aren't that many decent technology dealers out there. I'm really disappointed. So you just keep this our secret, okay?

Elec Man pushed another button to stop the recording, and Crystal Bot froze as everything became clear to her. The monitoring systems had been fixed, and she was caught. There was no charming her way out of this one. Wishing robots could faint, she tried to think of something she could say to calm her master down, but nothing came to mind.

"Oh Dad...I can...explain...it's not what ...it looks like..." she stammered uselessly before burying her face into her hands. "Oh no...Dad, I'm so sorry."

"YOU'RE SORRY? THEN WHY DID YOU DO IT?" Wily practically screamed at her, the suddenness of his words making even Elec Man jump. "Of all of my robot masters, I didn't ever think YOU would betray me!"

"All isn't lost!" Crystal Bot exclaimed rushing to try and explain herself. "That robot, Dub, I'm using him and my pipi Bruce to get information from Light Laboratories, and with it I can earn trust and-"

"HAD you actually KILLED Mega Man, you would be able to walk right into his labs and steal whatever you wanted!" Wily violently interrupted, his face reddening even more deeply than before. "Don't pretend that any of this is about information! Tell me the truth, NOW!"

She looked down nervously. The truth wasn't going to be pretty. She closed her eyes and tried to summon up the words, only to have them catch in her throat from fear. Wily wasn't going to like what she had to say.

"SPEAK!"

Her programming acted on its own in obedience to her master, and angry words started to pour out. "I did it because you treat Bass like crap! You're a big meanie! You deliberately refuse to do anything for Forte-kun, unless he 'brings you results'! How can he do anything for you when you barely do anything for him and Light upgrades Mega Man all the time? And it's not just him either! I'm not allowed to upgrade my own team members, even though you know that we're inferior and everybody hates us! All you'd have to do is give us some decent upgrades and we'd be just as good as any other team! But no, you just chuck the old robots and move on to the next big thing that catches your attention! The only reason you got us back from the robot museum is for cannon fodder!"

She paused a moment to gauge everyone's reactions. Cut Man's mouth hung open, and he took two more steps away from Wily. Guts Man stared at her as if she was the dumbest thing ever built, and Elec Man was both frightened and trying not to laugh at the same time. Wily however, was stunned by her words, and she could see that his rage was rising even more. But Crystal Bot reasoned that she had gone that far, so she might as well finish while she had an audience.

"I upgraded Bass without telling you, but I wanted it to be a surprise." she said quietly as she timidly stared at her hands. "I thought that if I could make him finally defeat Mega Man, you would stop being so mad at him all the time and finally acknowledge all the good he's done for us. Oh Dad, I never wanted to betray you..." Looking up at him with pleading eyes, she went on. "I researched metalurgy and robotics to make Bass more powerful than he's ever been. It's not like I really let Mega get away. Today's his last day on earth, I'm sure of it. You can see my work in my lab. The new armor I designed is very strong, Dad. Bass is a serious threat. So basically I did kill Mega, just...indirectly."

"ONE, do you have any clue what letting him live even ONE SECOND LONGER could potentially do to us?" Dr. Wily demanded, growing only more furious by the moment. "And TWO, Bass has been a weak, disobedient FAILURE from the time I built that pathetic machine! Since when are you more loyal to _him _than to me?"

"I'm not...I just don't like seeing a good robot go to waste. That's all. You weren't using him to his full potential."

That wasn't a smart thing to say.

"HOW DARE YOU QUESTION MY DECISIONS!" Wily lifted his hand before quickly thinking better of smacking someone made of metal. He dropped his hand and yelled. "ELEC MAN!"

"Yes, sir!" Elec Man immediately left his position next to the computer and charged his hand, slapping Crystal Bot in the face so hard that some of the metal bindings in her neck tore. Not only that, but the accompanying electrical surge made her drop to the ground and black out for a moment.

"Good." Wily said. "But I meant just take her to the automated machines for reprogramming."

Crystal Bot looked up in horror. "Oh Dad, please no! I'm sorry! I'll do anything to make this up to you! Please don't, please!"

"Oh, you will make up for it!" Wily's evil smile seemed worse than his horrible frown. "I've been wasting you as a technician. Your next job will be _much more useful_!"

In shock, she allowed herself to be lifted to her feet by Elec Man and Guts Man. Without resistance she let them pull her out of the door and towards the room that contained the automated machinery. Hopelessly, she let them direct her towards the door. Had she looked back, she would have noticed a sadness in Wily's eyes, how he was almost tearing up. The door closed behind them.

"Cut Man..." Dr. Wily began, making the orange and white robot jump as he spoke. "Did you know that I had plans to make her my replacement when I am gone?"

"Her as the doctor?" Cut Man's eyes widened. "She would have liked that."

"I guess I know better now." his voice was tinged with bitterness.

"Uh...well, what are you going to do now?"

"Prepare another automated machine, Cut Man." Dr. Wily's eyes narrowed as he thought of what he was going to do with the spare parts from Crystal Bot. "Elec Man is going to get a new brain."

On the other side of the door, Crystal Bot was still complacently following along with her two captors. She regretted what she had done, if only because it had disappointed her master. She had never done that before, and now she was suffering the consequences. She wanted to cry. But more than that, she wanted to escape somehow.

__

But wait.

she thought. _Wily only commanded Elec Man to bring me. He didn't order me to go along with him... my programming won't stop me..._

She immediately jumped, and thankfully it brought her far enough away for her to escape her Toad Man disease, so shot out her crystal eye attack. Managing to hit them both, she ran off down the hall, then tried to teleport herself away. Only it didn't work.

__

Oh no! Wily only repaired my communications yesterday, not my teleporter!

she thought, terrified. _How can I get out of here?_

Thoughts raced through her head as she continued to run down various halls. There would be no way she could fly the Skull Cruiser out of there, as her security password was probably already deactivated. Running into the jungle was fine, but they'd find her eventually. And this particular island was far away from the mainland, with deep valleys surrounding it. Few robots swam, and she would only sink to the bottom and be crushed by water pressure if she tried. And moreoever, whatever she did, she would be traced. Wily always knew were all of his robots were located at all times.

Thinking quickly, she signalled Bruce, _" - Clef! Fly off and find Forte, and tell him what happened! And tell him that if I escape, I'm somewhere in the jungle. - "_

But as Bruce signalled his compliance, the thought hit her that Bass might not come back to rescue her. What reason would he have to do so? And besides that, even with his protocol that allowed him greated freedom than the robot masters, he was still Wily's robot. Eventually Bass would have to turn her in; his programming would see to that. But as he was her only hope, she shook her head and ran forward.

The fastest way out of the fortress was up, through the castle and up into the jungle. She wouldn't be able to deactivate the trace on her, not by herself. She was going to have to be smart.

It wasn't long before she ran into other robots. Magnet Man had already guessed where she was going, and waited for her at a particularly narrow stairwell. She had almost passed him before his magnet beam took affect, and she felt herself being drawn in. Running faster gave her little progress, and Quick Man, from below, was able to get in several shots. However, she managed to turn herself at the exact right angle to get the quick boomerangs to hit her trace, so she wasn't too disapointed by the development. Creating a blue crystal and swinging it at Magnet Man, she managed to both get rid of magnet beam and use him as a temporary wall against Quick Man. Grinning, she realized that she might actually get out.

Needle Man was convinced otherwise, however, and had arrived just in time to shoot a spread of needles at her just as she emerged from the stairs. Quickly jumping and shooting off another crystal eye, she kept running, hoping that at least one of them would hit Needle Man. However it was not to be. Needle Man dodged the orbs with ease and kept jumping after her.

"Ah-ah, where are you going, young lady?" Top Man said as he gracefully skated beside her. "So sorry to do this, but you know, orders."

Whatever he had been planning to do, he didn't get the chance to do it. Crystal Bot simply smacked him in his face with her blue rod and let him fall clumsily to the floor. Needle Man, however, was starting to catch up. Crystal Bot had to wonder how such a bulky robot went so fast. Not only that, but metal saw blades flew in from a hallway to her left, and she barely managed to dodge them as Metal Man joined the chase.

Crystal Bot looked back. They were starting to gain on her, and she could feel herself tense up as the dreaded Toad Man disease started to come into affect, and needles began to slow her down, as well as the hit from an occasional top. But her downfall didn't come from behind. Out of seemingly nowhere, four shadow blades flew silently towards Crystal Bot as she was still looking backwards, and each of them hit an arm or a leg and pinned her to the wall. She struggled to get out of them, but they were stuck fast. Shadow Man walked towards her, nodding to himself as he saw that he had done his work fittingly; she wasn't going anywhere.

The girl-bot gave up. Several robots approached, and she realized that more than she had previously noticed had come after her. Even if she had some how managed to evade Shadow Man, the others would be waiting for her. And no one ever bested Team 2 (other than Mega Man). One of her unknown persuers was Elec Man, whose face was contorted in a vile manner, not only from anger but from the impact of a crystal orb. But the anger faded a little into delighted vengeance as hee lifted his hands, ready to shock her. Crystal Bot lifted her eyes one last time and saw what was hopefully a friendly face in the crowd.

"Wave Man! Wave Man, help me! Please!" she cried out. Wave Man had always watched out for her. Surely he would do something.

The other robots laughed and looked to see his reaction, doubting that he would actually do anything. And they were right. Wave Man's eyes lowered to the ground before he said in his deep, gargly voice, "You brought this on yourself."

"Wave Man..."

Instead her team leader merely turned around and walked away. Even as Elec Man closed in, Crystal kept looking around, letting her last fleeting hope believe that at just the last instant Bass would teleport in and save her. But that didn't happen. Elec Man pressed his hands on either side of her head as the other robot masters cheered him on. As his electricity activated, the cheers of the robot masters were drowned out by Crystal Bot's screaming.

-t-

"Hey, what are you doing?" a frightened voice exclaimed. "You can't come in here!"

"Yeah, well you better get MegaDweeb to come and stop me then."

The nurse was unable to stop Bass as he went into Dr. Light's hospital room, so she ran off to go do exactly as he suggested. Curiously eyeing the various tubes and machinery around the doctor, the robot approached to get a better look. Dr. Light was asleep, his wrinkled skin gently lifting and falling as he wheezily breathed. Bass wondered if he had ever seen a human that old. It was a little disgusting, and only made him more happy that he would never have to know old age.

"Hey Light, what do you think would happen if I started pulling out some of these wires?"

Bass reached for some of the plugs and waited for a reaction. But nothing happened. The breathing went on unhampered.

Not wanting to waste good taunting on someone asleep, Bass just shrugged and gave up. "Whatever. I've got nothing against you. What good is torturing an old fossil like you anyway?"

Reaching for the chart at the end of the bed, Bass took it and plopped down on a chair next to the bed, trying to see if he could discern any of the medical jargon on that referred to Dr. Light. As he suspected, most of it was beyond him. He looked back over at the doctor.

"Dang, look at you. How long are you going to sleep?"

Surprisingly, that got a response. "Well," a weary voice croaked. "I was planning on sleeping a little longer, but then this loud robot came into my room and woke me up." Dr. Light sat up and rubbed his eyes. "What brings you here, Bass?"

"You're not afraid of me?"

The doctor just shrugged, letting the corners of his mouth turn upwards. "No offense, but I'm too old to be afraid of very much."

"I guess that's true. I hear you're going to die in a year."

"You have such a way with words, Bass." Dr. Light couldn't help but laugh. "But no doctor can tell anyone exactly how long they'll live. I intend to fight this as long as I can. And I suppose you're just here to wait for Rock, yes?"

"You got it." Bass looked disdainfully at the chart before tossing it irreverantly to the floor.

"And how is Albert these days?"

It took Bass a moment to remember who that was. None of the robot masters ever dared refer to Wily by his first name. "He's doing okay, I guess. Same cranky bastard he always is."

"Oh." Dr. Light sounded disappointed. "Old age hasn't softened him at all?"

"He gets worse every year." Bass retorted. "Tell me something, Light. I heard that Wily used to be just like you and build robots 'for the good of humanity' and all that crap. What made him so sadistic?"

Dr. Light sighed. "He was never in robotics for anyone's good but his own. We met in college, and we were immediately friends, because it seemed as if we were the only ones that understood what the other was talking about. We were the smartest in our class. I suppose his nonsense started when I was named valedictorian above him, but at the time it seemed to bother him only a little. Not until I won the Nobel Prize for my work in robotics did I finally see all of the signs that he had been showing all along."

"That was when you built the first six robot masters, right?"

"Eight. Don't forget Rock and Roll. But yes, that was the time. Every day now I think back and try to see what I could have done differently to perhaps keep him from becoming what he has. If only he hadn't been so jealous, then this would have been an age of peace and knowledge. If he had worked hard, surely he could have become better then me at robotics, or perhaps made a name for himself in some other field. He's a very intelligent man, Bass, and he could have been great. But these past few years have been fraught with war simply because he couldn't let go."

Bass was sure that Dr. Light was trying to make some sort of point, but he honestly didn't care anymore. "Hm, whatever. Oh hey, I'm defeating Rock today."

Dr. Light paused for a moment before shrugging again. "Alright."

"You don't think I can do it, do you?" Bass frowned. "Well I can. I'm newly upgraded, and Rock doesn't stand a chance."

"Quite frankly, I'm a little surprised you haven't already." Dr. Light admitted. "You always were more powerful than him. And you have no idea how hard I've worked trying to keep up."

"Wait, what?" Bass almost jumped from surprise. "You're lying just so I don't shoot you!"

"I'm actually not. I noticed it years ago when I was repairing you. That 'bassnium' of yours is a dreadfully powerful substance. I can make neither head nor tails of it, and I _have _tried. Why in the world hasn't Albert made more robots with it?"

Bass grinned. "He made it by accident, and can't figure out how he did it." Bass decided against telling Dr. Light about Zero, the only other bassnium robot. "I guess that's good luck for you, then. But if I'm more powerful than Rock, why haven't I beaten him yet?"

"Hm, well, Rock has very adaptable battle AI. I suppose that's my best answer."

"That doesn't matter anymore. Today he goes down." The threat in his voice was frightening, but noticing it had little affect on the human, Bass had to ask, "Doesn't that bother you at all?"

"Well frankly yes, but I can't dissuade you from doing so." Dr. Light answered. "Robots always follow the directives they are given by their creators."

"Directives? What are those?"

"Robots in a way are not as simple as humans. They cannot function properly without a known and clear purpose, and they can't decide one for themselves. A directive is a purpose programmed into your AI. For example, Rock's is to protect the humanity and maintain peace. So therefore everything he does will follow that."

"I wonder what mine is." Bass wondered without any real curiousity. He had no desire to know whatever purpose Wily had given him, though he guessed it was something like "destroy all Light-bots".

"I don't suppose you'd allow me take a look and find out?" Dr. Light smiled.

"Not a chance, old man." Bass smiled back. "You can't trick me like that. Next thing I know you'd be making me into another dweeb like Rock."

"Saw right through me, didn't you?" The doctor cheerfully joked. "But really, why do you constantly fight him?"

"Because he's in my way. I'm the best robot there is, and here this little blue dipwad is making a fool out of me. I won't stand for it!"

"So you're fighting him to prove to everyone that you're the greatest robot ever?"

"Yeah."

Dr. Light briefly considered telling Bass that this meant logically that Bass was acknowledging that Rock was already superior, but he decided against it. "And how exactly would you define greatness?"

"Simple. The ability to get rid of everything in your way. That's greatness."

"Oh really? Greatness is sort of a word that's not very specific. One can be great in lots of ways. Such as a great painter, or an architect -"

"Painting and building aren't going to help me defeat Rock." Bass retorted.

"I'll put it another way then. Would you say that Rock, when you are not comparing him to yourself, is a great robot?"

"Sure. He's my rival, isn't he? He can't exactly suck."

"Now then, who did Rock defeat to become so great?"

Bass thought about it for a moment. "Well, he defeated Wily...not really. The guy's still out there, planning on getting his revenge, so that doesn't count. But he did take out all the robot master teams. Not that that counts for much, because they all suck."

Dr. Light shook his head. "It wasn't because he defeated any of them that he became great, Bass. People admire him because he brought peace to their lives, because every time Wily had aims to take over the world, he stood in the way and protected humanity, without even worrying for his own safety."

Bass rolled his eyes. "Like I said, because he defeated the robot masters."

"There's a difference between simply defeating someone and protecting others."

"Well I sure don't see it." Bass laughed. "Do yourself a favor and stick to robotics, Light. You didn't get your doctorate by being a shrink."

"Fair enough." Dr. Light leaned back in the hospital bed, wondering if anyone could ever get through to Bass. He was hit by a sudden coughing fit, and automatically Bass reached over to a nearby pitcher and poured Dr. Light some water. After drinking it, Dr. Light's throat calmed down enough for him to manage a "thank you".

"So what do you do here all day?" the robot asked. "It looks really boring. Doesn't Rock come up here at all?"

"Well, sometimes, yes, but he's very busy protecting the city. Roll comes often, but she has to keep the labs clean, so for a while she has to go back."

"That's a real shame. Don't you have any work you can do up here or something? Or do you just sleep all the time?"

"It does seem that way. Roll doesn't like me working on anything, however. She knows that I'll be working all hours of the night until I finish, so she's trying to keep me from returning to my old habits."

"That's pretty lame. Are you at least going to get out of here soon?"

"I have no idea, to be perfectly honest."

"So let me get this straight." Bass' expression was one of almost amazement. "You're this super genius, the father of all robots, and you're stuck here with nothing to do and you barely ever get to see your closest creations? Sucks to be you."

Dr. Light chortled. "I'm healing, Bass. I'll be out of here eventually."

"Yeah, in a hearse. Your last words will be something like 'death has got to be more interesting than this'."

That got a real laugh out of the scientist. Bass was surprised how someone so close to the end of his life could be so good-humored about death, and thought better of Dr. Light for it. A sudden movement outside the window caught Bass' attention. There, in the distance, was a little blue speck. He engaged his zooming feature to see Rock flying in on Rush. Mega Man seemed to also have his zooming feature operating, and Bass could see his horrified expression as he noticed that his mortal enemy was in the same hospital room as his helpless creator.

The black and gold robot laughed out loud before wearing his most evil face and letting Mega Man think the worst. "Yes! Alright Rock, this ends now!"

He headed for the window, knowing that Treble was waiting for him on the outside of it.

"Bass?"

"Yeah?"

"Please don't crash through the window."

"Eh...okay. But only because I feel sorry for you." But before he left, Bass added. "You know, for an old nerd, you're a half decent guy, Light."

Dr. Light smiled peacefully. "Coming from you, that's high praise."

As Bass teleported out of the hospital room, the scientist began to think that Mega Man was right: Forte did have a good side after all. He only wished that it would show itself more often.

\\\\\\\\\\\

Author's notes:

- I'm back! Hey y'all. How's it going? Been reading anything good while I was gone?

- To be honest, I'm a little disappointed with my portrayal of Elec Man. He really isn't quite as sadistic as I make him out to be, only the situations I put him in make him look that way. He really doesn't like Crystal Bot at all, but in general he's really smart and organized, as well as someone charismatic enough to follow. So just imagine that in other situations he's a more capable guy. Sorry to all the Elec fans out there!

- We're headed towards the end of this story, but there's still few chapters to go. I really hope you like the next chapter...muahahahaha! Though hopefully I'll do more with Team 2 robots, as they are very tough and hardcore. The way I see it, Team 1 is more administrative and protect Wily as well, but Team 2 gets stuff done. They're like the ultimate robot crew. Team 3 is more disorganized, because Shadow Man was supposed to lead them, but since he prefers solitude, usually they all fend for themselves as far as leadership goes. Team 4 now still works for Dr. Cossack, but Pharoah Man is naturally their leader, though he usually exercises his authority mostly on mechaniloids on a daily basis. Pharoah Man and Drill Man were built before Wily forced Dr. Cossack to work for him.

Team 6 usually relies on the leadership of either Knight Man or Yamato Man, though generally they work together only by a united consensus. I don't have any ideas for Team 7 or 8, because I've never really been interested in any non-NES Mega Mans, and I don't want to come up with a story for anyone I'm not that aquainted with. Tengu Man and Astro Man, however, are definitely destroyed, along with all of the robot masters from Megaman and Bass, other than Pirate Man and Burner Man. Even Wily wanted those robots destroyed, because they rebelled against him with King. Burner Man, however, proved to be such a threat against Megaman, that he was willing to reprogram and keep him. Pirate Man proved to be useful not so much against Mega Man, but Dive Man and Splash Woman. So both of them are counted in Team 8 to replace Tengu and Astro. Team 9 really isn't a team, because each of the robots works seperately at their different tasks, and they rarely ever see each other.

Team 5's leader is Wave Man, like I said in the story, but in my head, all of the team five robots were started being built anywhere from Mega Man 2 to Mega Man 3, and they were merely some failed ideas Wily had that ended up being finished only because Wily wanted to buy himself time to set up his plans to take over the robot contest as portrayed in Mega Man 6. Star Man was the first one Wily attempted, and would have been on Team 2 had he actually been completed when he was first started. Star Man was Wily's attempt to outdo Dr. Light and actually create a robot that could appreciate art. This however, failed due to Wily's lack of time after the events of the first Mega Man, and the other robots were made instead of him, leaving Star Man abandoned in some storage room.

Charge Man and Crystal Man were made during the events of Mega Man 2, and they were both completed then, though not officially counted as robot masters yet, as they only served to respectively transport supplies and create crystals for money. Both of them had to be upgraded with weapons for the events of Mega Man 5. Stone Man was also started at that point, but as he was a complicated robot master due to his ability to crumble and rebuild himself, the other robots made then became Team 3, and Stone Man joined Star Man in storage. Gyro Man was first meant to be Jet Man, but due to the cost of constantly having to rebuild his Skull Castle during Mega Mans 2 and 3, Dr. Wily ended up placing him in storage as well, until he got the idea later to change his flying device. Wave Man was built during Mega Man 4 based on Dive Man's schematics, but ended up being nowhere as effecient. Napalm Man and Gravity Man were the only two robots built specifically for the events of Mega Man 5, as they were his two sparks of inspiration. However, they too suffered, as they were also rush jobs, and Wily was forced to complete his stored creations and outfit his two already reliable Team 5 robots with weapons at the same time of their completion.


	9. Battles, Betrayals, Beginnings

Mega Man watched as Bass teleported outside of the hospital building, and he could only hope that his creator wasn't hurt. Bass however, looked even more confident than usual, his face full of gleeful hatred, and his armor seemed to gleam a little more as well. Everything about the situation seemed completely wrong.

"What...what did you do in there?" Mega Man barely managed to ask, afraid of what the answer might be.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Bass didn't mind letting the question linger for a while. He and Treble flew a little nearer. "I've been waiting for this for a long time, Rock. Today is the day that you're going down."

Mega Man was exasperated. "Can't this wait? I know that Wily is having more trouble than I am right now with having to deal with Dr. Cain. Can't we get rid of that guy first?"

"Hm, let me think about it." Bass said sarcastically as he aimed his buster. "How about...NO!"

The bomber had prepared to dodge a shot from Bass, but suddenly the Wily-bot teleported away. Scanning his surroundings, Rock realized that Bass had disappeared. It may have been wiser for him to scan for Treble instead, who was able to fly in and grab Rush by the neck with his teeth, then fly away, dragging the red dog along with him. Mega Man plummeted down, leaving an android shaped hole in the street. Mega Man was fortunate enough to have equipped his armor upgrade as he fell, and he was even more happy about it when he lifted his head and noticed the metal feet before him.

"No dogs." Bass insisted from above Rock, as he took aim.

Megaman managed to jump backwards and avoid most of his rival's shots. "Fine. Rush, teleport out!"

Treble found this arrangement disagreeable and barked his dissatisfaction as Rush gladly teleported out of Treble's giant maw.

"Cool it, Treble!"

The purple wolf growled but complied, whining a bit as he sat down on a nearby Mercedez, denting it from his weight.

Mega Man fired three shots at Bass to gauge the Wily-bot's ability. Only one of the shots hit, and Bass was pleasantly suprised at how little damage the plasma did to him. Bass equipped the signal shot to slow Mega Man down, then engaging both of his blasters (and wishing he'd thought to test them earlier), he swung at Mega Man and managed to land several hits. Rock, however, had been charging his weapon, and Bass wasn't able to avoid it entirely.

"Y'know, Rock," Bass' voice was both casual and sinister as he stepped closer to his enemy. "Dr. Light is a nice guy. It's too bad I had to kill him."

"NO!" Mega Man cried out desperately, firing several shots.

Bass easily dodged them. "Relax, I'm just joking." his dangerous eyes narrowed slyly. "Or am I?"

The fight continued for a while, with Bass enjoying every minute of it. His armor was so light compared to Rock's bulky upgrade that he could practically run circles around the blue bomber, and yet it was so strong that the mega buster couldn't do as much damage. His own shots were strengthened by the energy crystals, and dealt an acceptable amount of damage even despite Mega Man's new armor. However, Mega Man was never a joke, and he was a clever fighter. Bass knew that this wouldn't be an easy fight, but he preferred it that way. It wasn't worth it if it wasn't a challenge. Mega Man closed in, and Bass equipped the psycho pulse and punched him in the face.

Bass couldn't tell if it was effective or not at first, but when Mega Man fell back, there was an odd expression on his face, and it was one that Forte had never seen on him before: fear. Mega Man was genuinely afraid, and he didn't look like he believed he could win. Once he saw that look, Bass knew that despite the challenge, it wasn't Rock that was going to emerge victorious. His teeth gleamed as they showed in his snarling grin, and he took aim once more.

Suddenly a little brown object started flying around him. Bass waved at it distractedly, trying to keep his focus on his opponent. But it tweeted excitedly, and he realized he understood some of what it was saying.

"Bruce? What are you doing here?" Before turning his attention to the pipi, Bass snarled at Mega Man. "You stay where you are!"

Mega Man took a moment to use an E tank. He was nearly drained of his power already, and shocked at how the fight was going. What in the world had Dr. Wily done to make Bass so tough? Rock checked his internal systems as he watched Bass, wondering what the hyperactive tweeting was all about.

"What...she did WHAT? Oh, that stupid girl-bot!" Bass yelled before turning once more to Mega Man. "You got _lucky _today, Rock. Next time I see you, you're dead! Hear me? DEAD!"

"But...wait, weren't we...?" Mega Man had to wonder what could be so important that it would interrupt their fighting.

Bass' look was the most hateful thing the blue bomber had seen in his life. "You're not the center of the world, Rock."

And with that, Bass (and Treble, he noticed later) teleported away. Confused and disturbed, Mega Man wasn't quite sure what to do next, other than go to the hospital to see whether or not Bass had been lying about Dr. Light. He summoned Rush and flew to the hospital window, where he saw Dr. Light, seemingly no worse off than before, speaking to a nurse.

"Rock, come in." Roll's voice sounded in his head. "What's your status?"

"I'm fine...uh, I think. Did you see what happened?"

"Of course! Please tell me he was lying about Dr. Light!"

"He was, but I want you to get over here and make sure the doctor's alright anyway. I have a sneaking suspicion that my work here isn't done."

"Mega Man," Auto's voice came through his internal transmitter this time. "I'm detecting a teleportation in your area. Whoever it is, they're emitting a large amount of energy."

"Alright, I'm on the way."

Mega Man cringed and wondered what new horror of Wily or Cain awaited him. But he quickly scratched Cain off of his mental suspect list, as he heard behind him the very recognisable insane laughter of Dr. Albert Wily. Mega Man turned around to see him flying in the blue and grey Skull Capsule, his eyebrows wiggling in the all too annoying way that they did.

"Good afternoon, Mega Man!" Wily said in a mock jovial manner.

"Wily! What are you up to this time?"

"I was just in the neighborhood, and I thought I would say 'hello', that's all. Oh, and I wanted to introduce you to your doom. You know how death spikes usually require an immobile support to remain stable? Well, no more. Its about time-"

The lights of a teleportation flashed, and Bass and Treble reappeared. "Just what did you do to her, old man?" Bass' eyes were dark and furious as he demanded an explanation. "Where is she?"

"Go ahead and spoil the surprise, why don't you, Bass?" Dr. Wily sneered and pointed below his aircraft.

He was pointing to the top of a nearby office building, and there she was. Crystal Bot walked out towards the edge of the building, focusing silently on Mega Man to the point where it seemed she didn't notice anyone else there. Her eyes were dull and passionless, and she held a large spiked club made of pink energy crystals casually over her shoulder. Though no changes in her looks had been made, this was clearly not the same Crystal Bot that Mega Man had seen earlier that day. He shuddered to think of what Wily could have done as a punishment.

"I have recently made a scientific breakthrough, Mega Man." Dr. Wily continued. "Now you've encountered a lot of death spikes over the years, but I've finally been able to create the right circuitry to allow a robot master to wield one as a proper weapon."

"That's the most evil thing I've ever seen in my life!" a horrified Mega Man exclaimed.

Bass was inclined to agree with Mega Man, for once. "Change her back! She's not a fighter! I can defeat Mega Man alone! You don't need to do this!"

Dr. Wily rolled his eyes. "And how many times have I heard that before, Bass?"

"No, wait! I'll make you a deal! Just give me one more chance, old man...one more and that's it! If I fail, you can destroy me or turn me into a stupid janitor for all I care! But if I win, WHEN I win, you have to change her back! I can do this! You'll see that she should be a technician! I'll prove it now with these upgrades she gave me!"

Wily snorted. "Look at that, Mega Man. Doesn't it seem like he actually cares about her? But no, he just wants his little technician back. Well, that's just too bad, Bass. No deal. I've given you chance after chance, and how have those turned out, hm? Besides, you belong to _me_, and if I want to make you into a janitor I'll do it without consulting you. And what makes you think she can be changed back, anyway?"

Bass growled. "If you just listen for a second you might actually _win _for once!"

"I'm sick of your failure and your rebellion." Wily snapped. "Report to Fire Man! Now!"

Bass' expression changed little, though his eye twitched noticably. Wily was trying to avoid saying it in front of Mega Man, but Bass knew what the scientist was talking about all the same. He was going to be reprogrammed. But he tried not to show how upset he was at this turn of events, and merely teleported out again, just as his programming forced him to do.

"You found out what she did, didn't you?" Mega Man asked as he warily eyed his new opponent.

"Of course! Nothing escapes my attention." Dr. Wily's voice took on a darker tone. "She made a mistake, but she knows better now. Goodbye for now, Mega Man! Or should I say, goodbye forever! MUAHAHAHAHAA!"

And with that, the Skull Capsule closed and flew off. Mega Man looked down uncertainly at Crystal Bot. She was still staring at the blue bomber, as if she were waiting on him to attack first. Her crystal club lifted and pointed at Mega Man, who could only feel sorry for the girl-bot, though he was definitely a little scared of having to fight her.

"Wait, what am I thinking?" Mega Man shook his head. "I'm here to defend peace no matter who stands in the way! I can do it!"

He raised his buster with determination. Not even this new horror of Wily was going to stop him. But even as he started to tell Rush to bring him down to fight her, he felt a hand on his shoulder pulling him back. It was Bass.

"Didn't he tell you to leave?"

"He didn't say how long." Bass growled. "Now go get him before he gets too far. I'll deal with Crystal."

"How do I know this isn't a trick?" Mega Man asked.

"I can't fight Wily!" Bass snapped. "And are you really going to let him get away? GO!" Bass promptly kicked Rush to get the dog to move.

Despite his misgivings, Mega Man decided he would go after Wily. Not only would it stop the madness, but he definitely preferred not having to fight someone with an instant death spike for a weapon. Looking back one last time, Megaman zoomed after the Skull Capsule, hoping that he could catch up. As he left, Crystal Bot stared after him. Only after Bass landed on the top of the building alongside her and called her name did she finally turn her attention to the black and gold robot, though she still said nothing.

He came right out and said it. "You're not a Wily-bot, Crystal. And you're not Team 5. You were built by Crystal Man, and Wily destroyed him for it! You were upgraded with your own creator's parts! Wily's not your dad; he killed your real dad! He..."

But his words died away as he noticed that Crystal Bot's eyes were just as dull and expressionless as they had been before Bass had said anything. From that one look Bass was finally able to guess what happened. She had been downgraded into a mechaniloid, and even if she could hear him, she couldn't understand a word he said. And that was why it startled him so much when she did finally say a word.

"Treble."

The dog, who had been standing quietly next to his master, whined and barked, backing away from Crystal Bot.

"Treble!" she repeated sharply.

Bass could hear the radio transmissions that went along with her voice, understood too clearly. She had been given Treble's command frequencies, and they were stronger than his own. Treble looked at Bass with regret, but walked towards her as he was bidden. In complete shock, Bass could do nothing but watch as his own dog merged with Crystal Bot. The green of her dress turned purple, and long wings extended out, allowing her lift as the rockets began to fire. She flew off after Megaman, departing without another word. Wily had given Crystal Bot his dog.

The dark robot twitched with rage and screamed, "Screw the three laws and kill the old bastard, Rock!"

It was lucky for Mega Man that he was still within earshot; he turned back to see what was going on behind him. Crystal Bot was catching up fast, and her club was more than just a blunt object. Synchronizing her internal energy with that of her weapon, she let loose a powerful electrical bolt that Mega Man was barely able to dodge in time.

"Oh no! Bass, I thought you had her! Are you alright?"

Bass seethed. He hated letting Rock think he couldn't handle a fight, and he hated being helpless even more. Now Mega Man would have to fight Crystal Bot, letting Wily get away. He had to think of something.

"Bruce!" it suddenly came to him. "Bruce, I know you're around somewhere! Get over here!"

The little brown pipi flew over to Bass, if for no other reason than it had no one else to listen to.

"Do you remember Treble's circuitry? Can you get his rockets to power down?"

The pipi tweeted too cheerfully for Bass' mood before flying off. It flew swiftly and quietly to Crystal Bot, who was still engaged in fighting with Mega Man, and landed on her back. Or rather Treble's. Bruce plucked a few important wires before fluttering off, and the red flames of the rockets disappeared. Crystal Bot fell to the ground as Bass teleported over.

"Rock, I said I got it! Get going!"

"Alright!" Mega Man said, actually happy to be working alongside instead of fighting against Bass. He hoped Wily hadn't gotten too far away.

Bass ran through the crowded street as he discovered that Crystal Bot had thankfully landed in the park, giving him a lot of room to fight her. The fall had done her a good amount of damage as well, and she was just lifting the metal frame of Treble from her shoulders as he approached.

"This'll be too easy." Bass said confidently as he began shooting at his former technician.

Most of his shots hit her, but surprisingly, none of them seemed to bother her. In fact, they seemed to be powering her up. Then Bass remembered the crystals she had installed with his busters.

"Oh great." he snarled. "Somehow you're making my weapon energy compatible with your power, right? I bet you knew that when you put them in."

His accusation was met only with silence and more staring, though finally it seemed she was willing to turn her full attention to him. Crystal Bot lifted her club to attack, as his mind raced and tried to think of some way he could cause her damage.

"Bass."

"Gyro Man? What are you doing here?"

The green flying robot looked very angry as he stood to Bass' right, several yards off. Almost as angry as Bass, in fact. His arms were folded in an absolutely resolved manner, though as he spoke again, Gyro Man seemed very upset with Bass. "I know your battle AI is a lot better than mine, but I'm not betraying Wily." Gyro Man removed the propellers from his back and held them out in front of himself. "In fact, I'm just going to drop my gyro blade right here, and just walk away. I'm not betraying Wily..."

It took Bass a moment, but he got the idea. All of the robot masters were designed to be weak to another robot master, as a safety precaution. And apparently Gyro Man knew that Crystal was weak to his attack. But unfortunately for Gyro Man, Crystal Bot understood his intent as well. Instead of attacking Bass, she swung her club at Gyro Man and unleashed an electrical shock that stunned Gyro Man and stole half of his defense energy.

"You idiot!" Bass yelled. "Get out of here!"

Gyro Man didn't stand a chance. He tried to run away, but Crystal Bot was far too quick for him. She swung again, making Gyro Man spark and sizzle as his power system surged and shut itself down. He was out for the count. Crystal Bot looked at Bass again, and he knew he was going to have to be quick if he intended to get the gyro blade without getting killed. He might have been stronger than Gyro Man, but that weapon of hers would likely not take long to destroy him, if it had the chance. Left with no other choice, he ran.

It was a futile effort, he knew. Before he even realized it, the death spike energy had hit him, and all of his thoughts dispersed in a million directions. Fortunately, getting hit by the energy rather than the spikes themselves didn't seem to be instant death, but that didn't mean it felt good. He shuddered, temporarily paralyzed and trying to overcome the severe glitching. The upgrades he had been given were designed to cope with some electrical attacks, and the crystals embedded in his arms did absorb some of it, yet this was far beyond his mechanical body's ability to cope immediately. As his mind began to sort itself, Bass kept moving, trying to get to his feet and snag the gyro blade even before his limbs became fully controllable again. Crystal Bot, however, wasn't willing to give him the time. She readied another beam.

But then she stopped. "Stone Man!" her dead voice intoned with volume, not feeling.

Gyro Man hadn't been the only Team 5 robot hanging around. Stone Man somehow had appeared, and was standing between Bass and Crystal Bot.

"Oh, I'm not betraying Wily." Stone Man said in his deep yet somehow goofy voice. "I'm just standing here. That's all."

Bass had to get out from behind Stone Man to reach the blade, so he formed a plan before running after the weapon. Hoping he was quick enough, he dived and rolled after it. As he suspected, Crystal Bot fired again. Even though Stone Man was able to block part of it, some of it had reached perilously close to Bass. Luckily he managed to escape it. And as he had dived, he equipped the emit shield, making picking up the gyro blade as easy as rolling past it. Surprisingly, chunks of stone were orbiting him as well. Poor Stone Man had fared horribly in the attack, though Bass had to admit he was grateful for it. And it was much less creepy to have unidentifyable stone parts floating around him rather than entire robot masters.

But then the real fight began. Bass considered his options. As mediocre a fighter as Crystal Bot was, her overpowered weapon would make her a challenge, besides preventing him from getting close enough to make use of her Toad Man disease. If her death spike energy could take down robot masters in two hits, then he was going to have to be extra careful. He cringed, wishing that she had been vulnerable to someone else. Gyro Man's weapon was not only hard to control, but left him vulnerable any time he threw it. He hoped Stone Man's remains were good at absorbing the death spike energy.

The fight progressed, and it turned out that the shielding did do fairly well to keep her energy at bay. Bass tried throwing some of the stones at her along with the gyro blade to see if this would prevent her from being able to dodge properly, but all it mostly did was cause the shielding to be able to absorb less of her spike energy.

Noticing that the emit shield was starting to run out of weapon energy, Bass decided that it was time for some epic manuvering. He broke one of the four parts off of the gyro blade and threw the remaining three, then charged forward at her, relying on his shielding to block the crystal club. The rocks smashed into Crystal Bot, and the curse of Toad Man began to take hold. While her clumsy use of the club did knock out most of his shielding, she wasn't able to dodge the returning gyro blade as it boomaranged back to Bass.

And she hadn't noticed him breaking the fourth barb from the blade. As her attempt to dodge the rest of the blade failed, Bass cut off her right arm with the broken-off piece, which not only disconnected the crystal club but also prevented it from being stablized; it was nothing more than energy crystal again. Without wasting a moment, Bass rammed the makeshift weapon through her midsection, cutting away at her power core. Crystal Bot's power drained away, and she collapsed.

The emit shield ran out, and few pieces of Stone Man that were still orbiting Bass fell away. Angry, he kicked at Crystal Bot's remains.

"What's wrong with you?" he screamed at her redundantly. "What made you think you had to help Rock, you idiot?"

She had only done it for Bass' sake, and he knew he couldn't condemn her for it, even if there was a point in judging a broken robot master. Bass just helplessly on the ground and buried his face in his hands, wondering what he was going to do with both his technician and his wolf gone, and nowhere to return so that they could be repaired. Bass was utterly miserable.

What bothered him a little was why Gyro Man and Stone Man had thought to help him. They had actually done fairly well to avoid their programming failsafes, despite the fact that they were more strictly programmed to remain loyal to Wily. Bass remembered Wily and scowled. He hoped Rock could get the job done this time, but he knew how good at escaping Wily was.

Having no intention of just letting things play out, Bass went over and picked up the crystal club, tossing Crystal Bot's severed arm away as he did so. It was safe to touch at that point, but it was also little more useful than a stick against robots. Not that Bass would know what to do with it anyway, as he couldn't attack Wily without activating his self-destruct function. But just out of a whim, he equpped the psycho pulse. The club lit up with energy, looking a little different then it had when Crystal Bot had used it.

It was an interesting development. Bass didn't think it was an instant death spike, but whatever the psycho pulse did to the club, it was certainly more useful than before. He deactivated the pulse and scanned for Mega Man, who was strangely not far off. Bass teleported.

Mega Man had indeed caught up with Wily, who was certainly not dumb enough to be undefended. The Skull Capsule had merged with one of the armoroids to become a boss-bot, one with two huge laser cannons for arms and two massive legs. It looked somewhat human-ish, except where the head would have been was instead the location of the Skull Capsule itself. Mega Man, merged with Rush, had already destroyed one of the cannon arms, leaving nothing but a twisted metal stump, but he was having a hard time with the second one.

Bass stood helplessly to the side. As competent a fighter as his rival was, Bass hated waiting on the sidelines. As he seethed, he remembered something that Crystal Bot had told him: being limited in your options forces you to be a smarter fighter. But what was the smart thing to do in this situation? Bass got an idea, and suddenly jumped in front of the boss-bot's feet, facing away from Wily.

"What are you doing, Bass?" An aggravated Wily asked. "Get out of the way!"

"Maybe later." Bass responded, folding his arms.

"I said, GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

"In a minute, old man!" Bass yelled back.

"Useless piece of junk!" Wily exclaimed, letting the boss-bot kick Bass away. The impact of the giant foot was loud and painful, sending the black and gold robot flying. Bass's body tore through the dirt and weeds for several yards before he finally stopped moving. Mega Man gasped, but as the dark robot rose up from the ground, Bass was grinning in his usual evil manner.

"YES!" Bass exclaimed joyfully as he shot at the second arm and watched it also fall to the ground.

"What...?" Wily's eyes were wide with rage. "How can you do that?"

"Simple." Bass responded. "My programming may not allow me to attack you, but I can still defend myself against any robot that attacks me. Including Wily-bots."

"Bass..." Wily managed to say without screaming at the rebellious robot. "Did you actually look at your upgrades the last time I upgraded you?"

Bass wasn't paying attention. Bubble bats were flying out of the places were the broken arms had been on the boss-bot, and he and Mega Man were busy trying to not only defeat them but destroy the boss-bot's ability to make more of them. And it didn't help that a front gun had appeared, shooting bright blue lasers.

"Code Forte/Bass powerloss alpha 592!"

Suddenly Bass' power began to drain. Within seconds he had barely enough energy to remain conscious, and he fell to the ground. Struggling to get back up, he found that he could roll over onto his back, much less get back up.

"It's no use trying to reprogram you." Wily snarled, looking more disdainful than ever. "It's better just to be rid of you for good."

Bass wasn't surprised. Even though he didn't know of that command, he had been pushing his luck for years. It didn't even seem remarkable that Wily had designed him to be awake and aware of his own destruction. He shut his eyes for the command code he knew was coming.

__

"So that's how it is with them."

Mega Man thought, shocked that someone could be so cruel to their own creation. _"Poor Bass..."_

"Code Forte/Bass automatic destru-AAAUUUGGH!"

The boss-bot sparked as Mega Man's full charge hit it, destroying the amplifier. He flew in and landed near the collapsed Bass, shutting down the fallen robot's transmission reciever just in case Wily decided he would radio in the code. Mega Man had one last E tank, and he pulled it out to use on Bass.

"Come on, Bass, get up." Mega Man urged. "We've got to finish this fight. We can beat Dr. Wily together!"

"I can't believe this is happening..." Bass growled as he managed to lift himself up and rearm his buster. "But first Wily pays!"

Bass shoved Mega Man away and fired a new volley of his double busters at the boss-bot. Rock smiled a little, knowing how humiliated Bass must be, but let the matter drop and flew upwards to distract the bubble bats and lasers. Mega Man, however, was the first to notice the gathering behind him.

"Huh? What are they doing here?" he said before a lazer reminded him of what he was doing.

Looking back, Bass saw that he was talking about the remaining members of Team 5, each of them ready to join in the fight. Gravity Man jumped in front of the fighter bots, using his gravity hold to send the bubble bats flying away uselessly. Star Man joined him, calmly standing in one place and sending one shield after another after the lazers. Wave Man's harpoons joined in against the boss-bot itself, though Napalm Man's bombs and torpedos were definitely more effective.

"Charge Man!" Mega Man yelled even though he had little clue what was going on. "Go for the legs!"

"Shut up, Blue!"

"Just do it or get out of the way!" Bass hissed.

"Fine, fine!" And Charge Man obeyed, ramming himself into the boss-bots' supports. At first glance, it might have appeared that the boss-bot would fall, but instead it converted to its second form. The legs, still shattered from the impact, merely dropped off and left two stumps, which then converted into two plasma cannons. Not only that, but two new arms reformed to make a total of four plasma cannons. The entire machine lifted into the air and began firing.

"Be careful!" Bass ordered. "Don't destroy this form so quickly! The capsule will just separate and Wily'll get away!"

"What's your plan?" Wave Man asked.

Before there was an answer, Gravity Man exploded. Without having a ceiling to alter his personal gravity, he was unable to perform his usual dodging manuevers.

"Well, first of all, don't be stupid." Bass growled. "Charge, just run around and draw fire. Don't even think about shooting coal - it'll just be more trouble."

"But -"

"Shut up! Wave, you're stuck with the same thing, but get a shot in if you can reach. Star Man, Napalm Man, get him when you can, but leave one plasma cannon intact so that he doesn't just detach and escape."

"Which one?"

Bass dodged two more cannon shots before responding. "The one far right! And Rock, you keep Wily down in their range."

"What are you going to do?"

"You'll see!" Bass ran after the crystal club, which he had left out of sight nearby. Once it was retrieved, he rejoined the fight until only the aforementioned plasma cannon remained.

"Alright Rock, I need Rush!"

"What? But you can't..."

"Treble's in no condition to fly. Just hurry up and trust me!"

Mega Man landed, hoping that he was doing the right thing. But he had said they would defeat Wily together, and he intended to keep his word. He de-merged from Rush and gave him a quick, reassuring pet before telling him to convert to jet mode. Rush obeyed unhappily, and rocketed upward once Bass had impatiently jumped on him.

Bass wasn't any more happy about using Rush, as the dog was barely large enough to hold him. But they both managed to go upwards, dodging the remaining cannon before flying directly in front of the Skull Capsule, where it was still embedded into the boss-bot. He activated the psycho pulse and relit the club, electrifying it. Then holding it by the spikes, he shoved the narrow end into the side of the Skull Capsule, pinning the small ship down into the rest of the boss-bot attachments.

"Alright, get the last one!" Bass yelled back at the others.

It didn't take long for the four of them to finish off the last plasma cannon (Charge Man couldn't aim and Wave Man couldn't reach it), and though the boss-bot was designed to automatically detach from the Skull Capsule, with the crystal club stuck through the machine it couldn't. The grey and blue ship just wobbled through the air, trying to compensate for the big hunk of now useless metal that hung from it. The psycho pulse had also done its work, crippling several internal systems in the capsule.

"It's all you, Rock." Bass said as Rush brought him to the ground. "That's as much as we can get away with, and I'm surprised we could pull that off."

"Oh, I get it!" Mega Man said as a cheerful, tail-wagging Rush rejoined him. "The others were able to help you because they're programmed to be able to fight Wily-bots if another is in danger."

Bass nodded firmly. "Now go and actually get Wily this time. If that bastard escapes, you'll pay."

"But what do we do now?" Napalm Man asked.

"We gather up our fallen team." Wave Man answered simply. "And then we find someone to repair them."

Mega Man, who had been taking a moment to merge with Rush, addressed them. "You can come to the lab. Auto will repair all of you."

"And why should we trust you?" Wave Man gave the bomber an ugly look, holding one harpoon up in the air threateningly. "After what you did to Crystal Bot, Dr. Wily was going to destroy our entire team."

"Leave him alone." Bass muttered.

"Yeah!" Charge Man accused him. "If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have had to leave Wily! You're lucky you saved Bass, or else we would have kicked your butt!"

"I said SHUT IT!" Bass' eyes narrowed. "You can't hold Rock responsible for Crystal's choices. And don't pretend you could even come close to defeating Mega Man. It's harder than it looks." Turning to Mega Man, he said quietly, "Thanks, Rock."

"You're welcome!" Mega Man answered with a happy smile. "I'm signalling Auto now. He'll send a ship to come and get you."

Mega Man smiled as he went off, a little mystified at himself for allowing the Wily-bots to go to the lab. But he knew that whatever happened next, that Bass wasn't his enemy any longer. The wobbling Skull Capsule hadn't gotten far, but it looked like Wily was doing his best to get himself out of the predicament. Mega Man went faster.

Wave Man turned to the other Wily-bots. "Come, let's gather up our fallen."

Star Man and Charge Man immediately complied, and Bass shrugged. Napalm Man, however, merely stared at the two bomb shooters he had in his arms and sighed. Wave and Star Man loaded Charge Man with the remains of Gravity Man before going back to recover the other three. Stone Man was scattered over a fair distance, so it took a lot of searching to make sure that all of his parts were there. However, the others did seem to know how many rocks the robot was made of.

Bass had no intention of letting Auto repair him, despite the fact he could feel the glitches his computer had from trying to deal with several fully charged shots from Mega Man and Crystal Bot's death spike ray. But as he walked over to where she had fallen and stared at her ruins, he realized he might not have a choice. Bass frowned. He pulled out the broken piece of the gyro blade from her gut and picked her up, going over to place her in Charge Man's storage before looking for Treble. And where had Bruce gotten off to?

"Hey!" Bass shouted. "Somebody find Crystal's arm!"

\\\\\\\\

Author's notes:

- Whoa, that was a nuts chapter. Writing battles and all that. I tried to stick to how the robots would fight in the game, which made it interesting because Team 5 is limited in what it can do. I think writing fights is harder than other stuff, especially when it comes to keeping it interesting. Did I do okay?

- Crap, no korean in this chapter. I need to learn some more and fix that. Oh hey, writer's tip. If you're talking about a language, you don't capitalize. For example, "The Korean airline pilot spoke no french, but fortunately both he and the French woman were fluent in english". Yeah. Don't know why that is. And also, when you say "Dad" you capitalize, but not with "my dad" or "his dad" or "their dad". English is full of fun little rules like that.

- I had a nice deleted scene from this chapter. I liked it because it showed the characterization of Team 5, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. It took the chapter in a non-flowing direction. But I have some more deleted scenes, and I might just post a chapter of nothing but them after I'm done. We're nearing the end now, so would you like that?

- Grr...I just watched an LP on youtube, and the guy said that the MM5 bots were forgettable! Grrr! I don't mind him saying they're lame, because even I have to admit that they are, but they're so cute and cool! Er, what do y'all think?


	10. Changes for Bass

Roll rushed back home to the lab, simply amazed at the day's turn of events. She had gone to check on Dr. Light, but he assured her that he was fine. However, after hearing that nine Wily-bots were headed for the lab, Roll simply had to go back and make sure that everything was alright. Not that she could fight or even wanted to, but she at least didn't want to leave Auto alone. So after making sure that Dr. Light was fine, she teleported back to the lab. Seeing no one, she went to the main repair station room of the lab, which had to be where they were: four out of the nine of them were seriously injured.

She heard talking as she opened the large double doors.

"So, how exactly are you going to put this guy back together?" Bass was doubtfully asking Auto as he placed the last few stones from Stone Man on one of the repair tables.

"I doubt it will be difficult. His computer core will have all the data I need to reconstruct him."

"Right. Have fun with that." Bass turned around to see Roll, then asked with obvious disdain, "And where have you been hiding?"

"I just got back from the hospital." Roll answered nervously. "I...I was checking on Dr. Light."

"You should've stayed there. That old man's going to die of boredom if you keep leaving him alone like that." Having nothing else to say to her, Bass turned back to Auto. "I'm getting Gravity Man next. He's probably going to need more armor plating."

"I can handle that." Auto answered.

As Bass went by wordlessly, Roll shuddered. She walked by the other repair stations. Passing by Stone Man, who was currently nothing more than a disorderly pile of rubble, she went over to Gyro Man to have a look. The electricity burns had scarred him under his armor with several ashen patterns where his own wires had sparked. The computer monitor next to him showed his specs, and apparently it was going to take a good deal of replacing wires and circuit boards to get him into working order. Auto, who was off to the side wall, pressed several buttons on his keyboard and the automated robotic arms lowered over those two robots, getting to work. However, the third occupied repair table didn't activate. Roll went closer to look.

It was Crystal Bot. Roll looked at her, not sure how to feel. On the one hand, Crystal Bot had decieved her simply for technology, but Roll couldn't help but think she wasn't entirely evil. Not after she had built Dub as a gift. Roll looked with hope at her injuries: one of Crystal's arms was severed and there was a huge, jagged gap in her middle, but Roll didn't think it would be too troublesome to repair.

"Looks like she'll be alright!" Roll said cheerfully, but a little nervously. "Wow, I have so many things to ask her when she's finished!"

"There's nothing I can do for her." the green repair-bot replied solemnly. "I just finished my preliminary scans. It's too late."

"What? But Rock has come home worse than this in the past." Roll protested. "It can't be that bad."

"The obvious injuries aren't the problem. What's wrong with her is her mind. Her AI has been almost entirely deleted, besides her battle AI."

"Wait, you're saying her memories are gone?"

"Well yes, that too, but that's a separate part of a robot's mind. What I mean is that Crystal Bot's entire personality has been deleted. It's even been reformatted."

"Oh no! Poor Crystal Bot!" She knew that there was no recovery when reformatting was involved. "You're saying then that even if you did fix her, she'd be just like a mechaniloid again?"

Auto just nodded. "She wouldn't even be able to think for herself, much less return to her technical work. Not only that, but it appears that a significant portion of her mental hardware has been removed. I'm not certain what she had before, but I do know that no one with her current hard drive would have the capacity for robotics. Wily definitely wanted her gone permanently."

"Well, it's a good thing Bass doesn't care about robot masters." Roll commented sadly. "I'd hate to have to tell him about this otherwise."

The doors behind them suddenly slammed. Roll jumped and looked back, noticing that there was no one to be seen. However, the defunct Gravity Man was lying haphazardly on a repair table, as if with haste and a sudden lack of motivation. Bass had obviously heard what they were saying.

Auto went over to put Gravity Man in a better position on his repair table. "You'd better go and watch him, Roll. I have to continue my work here."

Roll cringed, but she knew it was for the best. So she walked quietly through the halls, trying to guess where Bass could have gone. It wasn't far. In fact it was just the "library", which had various scientific documents and robot scematics stacked in a seemingly disorderly manner around the room on the different, mismatched shelves (the library was put together in a way only Dr. Light understood, so Roll had never tried to arrange it).

Roll slowly opened the door to see Bass sitting at the far end of the room, staring out of the window which overlooked the nearby city block. Noticing that he still had some dirt crammed into his helmet from being kicked by the boss-bot earlier, Bass pulled off his helmet and grabbed the nearest cloth to wipe his face. Not until he had gotten large, dark smudges all over it did he realize that it was one of Dr. Light's lab coats. He just sighed and finished getting the dirt out of his blonde hair before throwing the coat aside. He then returned to staring out of the window, leaving his helmet abandoned on the table beside him.

Roll tried to think of something to say, but Bass spoke first, without turning to look at her.

"I'm not going to destroy the lab."

"I...I didn't think you-"

"Yes, you did. Don't lie."

Uncertainly, Roll entered the room, choosing not to argue with Bass. That was when she saw Wave, Star, Charge, and Napalm Man sitting powerless against the left wall.

"Uh, what happened to those guys?"

"I shut them down. Their programming is lame. If I let them alone, they'd be mindlessly tearing everything down after a while. Now what do you want?" Bass looked back at her with a look that clearly said "go away".

"I just...I...wanted to know if you're alright." Roll answered, not sure if he would believe her. "I didn't think...you never really seemed to care about any robots before. What's so different about Crystal Bot?"

Bass just rolled his eyes and turned away again. Roll didn't know what to do next. She had never actually seen Bass this close before, and he was significantly larger than she had at first believed him to be. He was very dangerous, and if he tried he could destroy the unarmed girl-bot easily. Very much afraid, she didn't want to risk annoying him, and from his silence Roll guessed that it would be better for her to leave. She started to turn away.

"I had everything planned out this morning." Bass suddenly said. "Today was supposed to be a _good _day. First I'd destroy Rock, and after that, I'd leave the old man once and for all. I've been thinking about it for years. He's been bossing me around since he built me, and my stupid programming makes me obey. I'm sick of it. I tried leaving before, but it was no good. Every robot needs maintenence at some point or another, so I'd end up going back to the only person who bothered. And Wily would barely notice I'd gone, only to yell at me for not doing whatever it was he wanted."

Roll understood. "Oh..so you figured that if you got Crystal Bot to go with you, you'd have a technician and not have to worry about it."

"Yeah. All I'd have to do was tell her the truth about her creator and she would be just as ready to get out of there as me." Bass leaned back in his chair, and it creaked perilously under his weight, as it wasn't meant for robots. "And Crystal, she...she was..."

The dark robot paused as if searching for a word. Roll listened, very interested, thinking he was going to say something like "intelligent", "funny", or "kind".

"Well, she was aggravating." Bass finished his face contorted in annoyance. "Plain and simple, she was a demento just like the rest of them. But she knew what she was doing, and no one did more research than her. Technology was her life. She believed in me because she knew what I'm made of. And in the end, it's way better to be repaired or upgraded by someone that, you know, actually cares..." his words trailed off.

"She was pretty nice." Roll agreed, though after thinking a moment, she realized she had to qualify her statement. "Well, for someone trying to trick me."

Bass' laugh was mean. "Don't pretend any of that supposed friendliness was more than an act. Crystal could manipulate anyone she wanted, even Wily...for a while." Here Bass frowned again. "She was his favorite robot, and there he goes and deletes her without a second thought! Rock has no idea how lucky he is to be a Light-bot. After I talked to Light today... Light...he's not like Wily. With all this safeguard programming in my head, I'm basically Wily's slave; Light would never do anything like that..." Bass put his face in his hands, then slammed angry fists into the windowsill. "And since he made me, I might actually be like Wily, without even noticing it! How do I know what sort of insane crap that guy put into my AI? This is the nutjob that gave me my directive!"

He stood and turned to Roll. "I'm sick of it! I can't live like this anymore! Knowing that I was put together by some deranged monster...this guy invented _Spring Man_ for crying out loud! I'm lucky I'm not a sniveling idiot! I want Wily's influence out of me now. And...I'm definitely going to regret this, but...I want you to reprogram me."

Roll's eyes widened. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Well, not _you_, Auto I mean. And not a lot. Just take out all those automatic voice commands, the failsafe programs, and all that crap Wily stuck me with. I want to be free of the old man for good. Just don't get any ideas. Don't even think about turning me into another Rock."

The housekeeper-bot had no clue what to make of this, but she had at least one idea. "Okay...but only on the condition you stop trying to destroy my brother."

"Heh...you don't have to worry about that anymore." Bass' voice quieted and he stared at his feet. "There's not really a point anymore. After he interrupted my self-destuct sequence...well, how can I? Even if I did destroy him, it wouldn't really count because Rock's the only reason I'm still alive. I'm not that much of a jerk."

"I'm surprised you're admitting that you're a jerk at all." Roll tittered a little.

"Watch it, little girl." Bass warned her with a scowl that he was still in a bad mood. "Now let's go. I want to hurry up and get this over with before I change my mind. For all I know Wily knew I would try and has some sort of program waiting to fry me in the attempt."

"We should get these guys too." Roll added, going over and pulling Star Man over her shoulder. "I'm not about to let Auto repair a bunch of robots just to send them back to Wily."

Bass stared at her incredulously. "How..."

"What?"

"Eh, nothing." Bass shook his head and reached for Charge Man. "I keep forgetting that you're not a human."

It didn't take them long to put the other four masters on the other repair tables. Bass was thinking only of his upcoming reprogramming. As determined as he was to be freed of the enslaving software, he was still nervous. Not only was he going to be worked on by the mechanic of his long rival, but he was risking major changes to his AI.

"Alright, Bass." Roll said after she spoke a moment to Auto to tell him what was going on. "Are you ready?"

"I guess."

"Then come get on this table over here." Roll pointed to one of the few repair stations left. "Auto will need to first do a preliminary scan to figure out what exactly what needs to be done. It shouldn't take too long, besides getting past the security Wily put in your head. We'll make sure you're in good condition and cleaned too while this is going on."

Bass just nodded. Roll's tone was somewhat cheerful, but that did nothing to ease his apprehension. Nonetheless he got onto the table and laid down, and Roll started fastening straps on his arms and legs.

"Is that really necessary?" Bass asked, not pleased with being restrained.

"It's just easier on the machine to keep you steady." Auto was the one who answered his question. "You'll need to be shut off while I work on the removing Wily's limiters. Think nothing of it. The others have to be strapped in as well."

Bass silently accepted it. He grimaced as Auto pulled a wire into the USB port in his neck and began scanning. The assistant-bot showed amazing hacking skills as he bypassed the numerous traps and viruses that Wily had installed just in case someone wanted to hack into his most powerful robot. As he did, Bass just stared up at the mechanical arms of the automatic machine above him. He sighed, then turned and looked over at Crystal Bot. She lay unmoving on the nearby repair table, broken and helpless. Bass wished that he had done something to save her from that fate, or had at least told her about Crystal Man before she became a mechaniloid. As it was, he felt like he had failed her.

"_Choesong hamnida_..." he said silently, his lips barely moving. But even as he said it, he knew it was completely stupid. Crystal Bot couldn't hear him. She was powerless and mindless, and it was already too late for apologies. Instead, Bass just shook his head and looked for Roll.

"What are you going to do with her now?"

Roll looked up from strapping Wave Man in another table. "I really don't know. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Nah. Just recycle her I guess." he responded bitterly, after taking a moment to think about it. "If she doesn't work there's no point in keeping her around."

Roll didn't like that idea at all. "We could put her in the robot museum."

"NO. No way in the world." Bass growled. "The robot museum is where robots go to rust and get stared at by gawking people because they were defeated by Mega Man. It'd be better to just toss her in a junkyard."

Roll didn't understand his hatred of the robot museum, but she didn't press the issue, and Bass went back to his morbid thoughts. He remembered what Dr. Light had told him about directives, and it took him a minute or two to realize what sort of effect changing his might have. Bass had lived the few years of his life for one purpose, and changing that purpose would potentially make him an entirely different robot, even though his personality AI would technically remain unchanged. He was risking his identity.

_I might as well go through with it... _Bass thought to himself as he cringed with reluctance. _I'm the one who wanted this in the first place. Ugh, I hope I don't end up as lame as Rock...I can't believe I'm trusting these guys...they'll probably just stick me in the robot museum..._

"Alright, Bass," Auto interrupted his thoughts. "You can go ahead and power down now."

"Okay..."

Sighing, he resolved himself to finish what he started. But as he looked one last time at his lost friend, he noticed something moving behind her, and whatever it was, it was...shiny. And when it stood, Bass was able to see what it was: a robot with several built-in gems, all of them large and well cut, and he had a triangular head that vaguely reminded Bass of Top Man. Whoever it was, the new robot was removing Crystal Bot's helmet and trying to reach her cranial circuitry hatch.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Bass shouted, ripping the straps that held him down as he jumped off the table. "Leave her alone!"

Roll, noticing who Bass was talking to, gasped. "Jewel Man...? Auto, did you make him into a technician or something?"

"I didn't." Auto answered, as confused as she was.

Bass, realizing that this was one of their robots, still nonetheless lowered his buster at it. "He's got to have a Cain virus!"

Auto calmly went over and grabbed Bass' buster, pulling it away from Jewel Man. "Let him alone for a moment so that we can see what he does. There's nothing he can do to worsen her condition, in any case."

"Y'know, you're a pretty bold guy, Auto." Bass threatened as he snatched his buster out of the repair-bot's grip. He didn't like bold robots.

Jewel Man did find her cranial circuitry hatch. Opening it, he removed a plate of his own armor from his chest and pulled out a computer chip. But once he looked into Crystal Bot's metal skull, Jewel Man stopped and glitched. Trying again, he looked into her head and moved the chip closer. Then stopped and glitched again. That was enough for Auto, who simply went over and picked a squirming and struggling Jewel Man and brought him over to the side supercomputer, plugging him in. Somehow this caused the shiny robot to shut down.

"Hm," said Auto as he watched the complicated data run through the screen of the supercomputer. "It is a virus. Though now I am uncertain of its origin. I'm not familiar enough with Dr. Cain's work to identify it with him...though it does seem odd that someone with the credentials of Cain would make such a crude virus. Already my computer has removed it from Jewel Man's CPU."

"So you're saying he's more or less normal now?" Bass asked.

"Should be."

"Good." he immediately switched Jewel Man back on and slammed him against the wall. "Wake up!"

"Aaaahh..." Jewel Man moaned. "What happened?"

"You just about to explain what this is." Bass threatened, holding out the chip in his face. "Do go on."

"What is this guy doing here?" Jewel Man yelled in shock, trying futilely to get free of the violent robot's grip.

"Bass, stop it!" Roll exclaimed. "He's not a threat!"

"I'll let him go when he starts talking." Bass insisted.

Jewel Man disliked that arrangement, and he engaged his jewel satellite. It did little damage to Bass, but it did knock him back.

"Ah, now that's better." Jewel Man stood and folded his arms, letting his jewels orbit him as he stood up. "About that disk, I don't have a clue what it could be, and even if I did, I would hardly discuss it with a Wily-"

Bass' next shots hit his shield, but the energy crystals in his arms managed to power his buster shots enough to short out Jewel Man's shield. Jewel Man collapsed again.

"No free shots." he snarled.

"I said stop it!" Roll raised her voice again. "Honestly Bass, you need to calm down. And Jewel Man, you can tell him what's going on. He's...well, it's okay now."

"Say that when he's the one shooting at you..." Jewel Man complained as he got back to his feet.

"We found a virus on you," Auto explained. "And apparently it caused you to attempt to repair another of Wily's creations who happens to be present: Crystal Bot."

"Crystal Bot? Wily didn't build her." Jewel Man's eyes widened. "But she's here? I haven't seen her since..." He went over to the table to go and see as he spoke, his voice halting once he saw her devastated form. He frowned. "She's changed a lot. Why does she...?"

"Those are Crystal Man's parts." Bass muttered. "Wily upgraded her when he was destroyed."

The Light-bot cringed. "I really shouldn't be surprised. Poor Crystal Man...he was only trying to help...I think."

"What are you guys talking about?" Roll asked, confused.

"Ah, I'm afraid I have a bit of a confession to make." Jewel Man sheepishly admitted. "When myself and my siblings were reprogrammed by Wily, I was, ah, inadvertently drafted into a little side project of Crystal Man's: his 'daughter'. And it was his virus that kept me from speaking of it before this, though I'm a bit surprised he didn't delete the memories altogether. I was made to keep it a secret even from Wily himself. Apparently he had been working on Crystal Bot for years, but with little success. Once Dr. Light was falsely arrested, Crystal Man assigned me to steal parts from and designs for Roll, Auto, and even Mega Man, uh yes, Rock -"

"I know about Mega Man X, Top Man." Bass rolled his eyes.

"I'll thank you not to refer me by that name." Jewel Man retorted. "But in any case, like I was saying, while Mega Man fought my siblings, I was able to break in and retrieve the plans. It was sadly a simple thing to do. The security here was pathetic."

"It still is." Bass added demurely. "All you have to do is trick Roll."

Roll glared at him. "This is just our public lab. All of our more serious projects are located elsewhere. But anyway, I don't understand. Why was Crystal Man trying to build her and hide it from Wily?"

"I never understood all of his reasoning." Jewel Man answered. "But to put it simply Team 5 was weak. They were nothing more than a few failed ideas of Wily put to use to delay Rock for Wily's next big plans. Later they were all made to perform non-battle services, and Crystal Man was made into a technical assistant. Crystal Bot was built to be the one to carry out the upgrades on his team, because Wily had no intention of allowing them to do any serious fighting from then on. Crystal Man had hoped that she would finish all of them before Wily discovered her, so that by the time Wily did found out, he would see how useful she was and not destroy her. Crystal Man even did as much as he could to ensure that she would have a friendly and loyal personality. Though from what Bass says, apparently he did his job too well, and she must have replaced him. When did that happen?"

"I was being 'upgraded' at the time." Bass shrugged, looking back at unfond memories with a grimace. "You can ask Wave Man when he's fixed."

"Okay then. After stealing the necessary parts I had to fight Mega Man, and of course I lost, then all of us were returned to our normal states. Unsurprisingly, Crystal Man had already did what he could to make sure I wouldn't speak of it. And I'm a little surprised that the virus wasn't discovered earlier."

"But how does that connect to the disk?" Roll asked. "You looked like you were trying to fix her."

"I can make a guess. After I was returned to normal, I saw Crystal Man one last time. He wanted to ask me a favor." Jewel Man frowned, musing over his memories. "I'm not entirely certain what happened next, as I only vaguely remember how the conversation went. Presummably he shut me down by trickery, as I'm certain I could have defeated him in an actual fight. He wasn't the worst of Team 5, but he did have Toad Man disease."

"That must be when he uploaded all of this information." Auto said, still staring at what the computer screen revealed. "As weak as the virus may have been, he certainly was an expert on keeping a large amount of data hidden on your hard drive. Among other things, there seems to be a program for repairing Crystal Bot, though its flaw is that it was based on her original design by Crystal Man, not on the upgrades Wily gave her, and that was why you were unable to do any good."

"What was I trying to do?"

Auto pointed at the chip, which was still in Bass' hand. "According to what I see from examining the virus, you were installing Crystal Bot's original AI."

"Wait, you can fix her?" Bass' suddenly perked up. "Wasn't that the problem?"

"The primary one, yes. There still remains the matter of rebuilding her mind and doing something about her deleted memories. The good news is, with what we have here, rebuilding her CPU will be fairly simple. And moreover, I don't doubt that Wily has a backup of her memories, especially if she had the habit of doing things behind his back. He would want to be sure to know about everything."

"So I'll have to go and get the backup then." Bass' terrible grin returned. "This'll be simple."

"Hey, what else is on there?" Roll asked as she peeked at the computer screen. "That looks like Napalm Man."

"Ah yes," Auto started scrolling through different screens. "It seemed that Crystal Man not only stored information in Jewel Man about his creation, but also his intended upgrades for his team."

"Good." Bass sternly ordered as he gave the chip to Auto. "Upgrade all of them now."

"What? Why?" Auto asked a little suspiciously.

"Look, not only is Rock going after Wily, but I'm about to go back and terrorize Skull Island. I doubt that the _fifty-four _robot masters still there, mechaniloids too, are going to leave you guys alone after all this, and unless Rock wants to deal with them all by himself, you'd better get to it."

Jewel Man nodded. "Looks like I'll need to get my siblings together then."

Auto agreed, and started processing Crystal Man's designs, studying them to see what extra parts he would need. However, the last blueprint in the collection shocked him. The plans were for a girl-bot, but not Crystal herself: for whatever reason, they were plans to turn Roll into a fighter robot.

"What in the world?" Roll gasped, looking over Auto's shoulder. "What exactly was he planning on doing?"

"Ha, you should totally use that." Bass laughed. "You'd be at least a little less lame."

"Shut up!" Roll shuddered. "I don't want to be a fighter. Besides, he probably wanted me to work for Wily anyway."

"Whatever. Just hook me back up to one of these machines. The sooner I get my failsafes removed, the sooner I can get going."

This time Bass got back up on the table almost cheerfully, not reluctant any longer. As Roll tightened the straps and plugged a cord into his USB port, Bass suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, what's my directive?"

Roll pushed some buttons at the miniature console next to the table. "It says here that your directive is to be the greatest robot ever. That's certainly not a surprise."

Bass gritted his teeth. That was what he'd been living for since he was made, and he liked it. However, it was still a part of Wily's taint, a part of the evil doctor's hold on him. He knew that he was going to give it up.

He sighed. "It's going to have to be changed."

"Oh? What did you want to change it to?"

Considering it, Bass realized he had no clue what he wanted to live for. He wanted to keep fighting, and that was as much as he knew. But fight for what? Bass thought back to his conversation to Dr. Light, remembering what the good doctor had said about an age of peace. The robot realized that peace was what Dr. Light had wanted all along. Peace and progress had driven him ever since he first entered robotics. Bass hardly shared his ideals, but if that's what Dr. Light wanted, it had to be a good idea. He smiled ironically at the thought of becoming a good guy.

_"Looks like __**I'm **__turning me into a dweeb." _he thought humorously before responding to Roll. "Hey, Rock's is something like 'protect peace' and all that crap, right?"

"Yes."

"That sounds good. Make it that."

Roll paused a moment, wondering if it was some sort of joke. He could hardly want the same directive has his greatest rival. But Bass seemed perfectly serious, so she just pushed the appropriate buttons. And this time Bass didn't hesitate to shut down. This time, he knew that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

"Oh, hey Auto!" Bass remembered, and his eyes darkened. "When you fix Crystal Bot, make sure she can't merge with Treble."

\\\\\\

Author's notes:

- You know what I thought of while I was writing this? Top RAMEN Man! Lol.

- According to the "Megaman and Bass" game's data discs, Roll is a coward. I tried to show that here, but I think over the years as Roll has been watching her brother fight and has gotten a little braver, so she's not too afraid to talk back to Bass a little. That doesn't mean she wants to be a fighter-bot though. Yeah, you'll see more about this later.

- Well, not a very active chapter, I suppose, but I hope you like it. It took me a while, because I sort of messed myself up a little in the last chapter, and this go-round I wanted to make sure I ironed out the emotional detail a little more. Yeah, I'm putting a lot more effort in than I thought I would be in the beginning. Oh hey, question. Are the chapters too long? Lately I've been writing some pretty wordy ones, so is that alright or would you prefer a bit shorter? Just fyi, I think we've got like two or three chapters left, and then maybe I'll put up some deleted scenes.

- I don't really think you'll need me to translate _cheosong hamnida_. It should be obvious from the context. The first person who tells me the meaning and the tone (formal or informal) wins a cookie.


	11. Setting Things Right

"You can reactivate him now, Roll."

Obeying, Roll pushed a button on the side console, then removed the cord from Bass' USB port. He revived, blinking a little.

"How do you feel?" Roll asked.

"Not that different..." Bass answered hesitantly as he sat up. Treble, waiting for him on the floor, barked happily to see him up.

Checking his systems as the seemingly busy Roll went off to some other task, Bass noticed that only about an hour had passed since he'd deactivated. That was good. The sooner he got to Skull Island, the better. He had destroyed the monitoring system earlier that day, when Wily had ordered him to go back, but he knew that the robot masters would have been able to piece together some semblance of the truth by now. He couldn't let them have time to interfere with retrieving Crystal Bot's memory.

Bass looked over at her repair table. The automated machine had mostly reattached Crystal Bot's arm, and it was working on her power core, which was certainly more tedious and intricate work. She wasn't going to be finished for a while, besides the rebuilding of her brain.

The room itself was alight with sparks and sounds, and Bass got the feeling that if he were human, the noise would be too much. Stone Man was making good progress, as most of his framework was finished. Gyro Man was still a mess of wires, and Gravity Man's innards were half exposed as his armor was being switched out, but the other robot masters seemed to be doing well, at least outwardly. Jewel Man had disappeared.

"Alright, I'll be back." Bass called out to Auto as he reached for his helmet, which someone, probably Roll, had left on the table next to him.

"One moment." Auto said, lifting one arm from the supercomputer's console to get Bass' attention. "I'm afraid that Crystal Man's data for her mind is...haphazard at best. I suspect Wily did a lot of work on Crystal to get her to work in the first place. While you are gone, it would be best if you pick up whatever plans Wily has that describe how he upgraded Crystal Bot's mind from her original design."

"Got it." the venturing robot answered.

"Where's he going?" A familiar voice asked.

Bass turned around. "Rock? Don't you have a million papers or whatever to fill out for the cops?"

But as he approached the blue bomber, he noticed that Mega Man was being re-armored on another table. His entire left side had been removed, and Auto was just gathering some freshly cut titanium to replace the armor that had been too badly torn up. And Mega Man didn't look at all pleased see Bass. He turned away, cringing and unwilling to acknowledge the taller machine.

The dark robot wrinkled his nose, and his teeth flashed viciously. "Don't tell me you let Wily get away again."

Mega Man's smile was awkward and pathetic. "You know how he always has an escape plan...team one showed up...uh...I'm sorry..."

"YOU'RE SORRY? Do you have any clue what you've...no. No, it's okay. That's just fine, Rock." Bass' evil smirk appeared. "I can deal with that. Treble, get over here! Bruce! You're coming too!"

Mega Man asked, "What exactly are you going to do?"

"Dr. Light gave me some good advice today." Bass cryptically answered as he lifted his buster. "I think I'll go ahead and follow it."

Merging with Treble, Bass flew into the air, barely giving Auto enough time to lift the ceiling's hatch before flying away.

"Crap! I should follow him..." Mega Man stared helplessly at his missing armor. "You installed the three laws on him, right?"

"Are you kidding?" Auto answered. "I installed them twice."

-t-

By the time Bass reached Skull Island, it had been dark for hours. Luckily Auto had had the foresight to disrupt Wily's tracer in both Bass and Treble, so their arrival was hailed by no more than the sound of Treble's rockets. Bass wasn't stupid, however. He knew that it wouldn't be long before he would be discovered, so he just hurried towards Crystal Bot's former lab on the island. Trying to think of where else her memory or brain blueprints might be, Bass landed and de-merged from Treble, and they both silently went towards the top entrance to Skull Castle.

As he had imagined, the place was buzzing with activity. Robot masters were running everywhere, packing up everything they could in the shortest time possible.

"Hey Needle Man, what are these?" Top Man asked his fellow Team 3 member as they both went down the hall with large boxes.

"Data from both Crystal Bot and Gravity Man's research." the bulky fellow replied. "We've got to get them to the Skull Capsule, because Wily wants to know exactly what they've been doing."

"So you're saying all this data went to Dr. Light when Team 5 betrayed us?" Top Man exclaimed. "I can't believe it."

"No, Wily made sure Crystal was at least cleaned out. Now shut up and haul the boxes." Needle Man muttered. Very few robots had the ability to tolerate Top Man for very long, much less his own team members.

That was all Bass needed to hear. Knowing which one would put up more of a fight, he snuck up behind Needle Man and kicked his legs out from under him, then pelted him with dozens of shots. That was the end of him. Top Man, frightened out of his mind, had gone off, dumping his load gracelessly as he skated for his life. Treble had no problem at all catching up and pinning Top Man to the floor.

"Good job, boy." Bass picked up Top Man and threw him against the wall, holding him there to squirm uselessly. But as Bass looked at Top Man, his mind wandered a little. He could see that Top Man was also a victim of Wily's whims, general insanity, and short attention span. How else could he have become such a ridiculous robot? Bass cringed, wondering if his new directive was turning him into a sap.

"You know, Top Man, I really feel sorry for you."

"R-rreally?" Top Man stuttered in fear, trying to grin a little. "Sorry enough to let me g-go?"

"No."

Equpping the psycho pulse, Bass promptly punched him in the face, cracking his visage and sending several sparks shooting out of the injury. "Ha! I've been wanting to do that for a long time, you pathetic toy!"

Bruce flew to the box Top Man had been carrying and started pecking at it. Bass opened it for the bird, and Bruce flew in, sorting through the assortment of discs to find a power chip. Clef handed it to Bass with a few merry tweets.

"An absorbable power?" Bass questioned. "Where did Crystal get this?"

Not one to waste a perfectly good ability, Bass absorbed it. Bruce answered his question with more tweeting.

"Oh yes...this will work just fine."

-t-

Elec Man emerged from the automated machine in the main lab, feeling more powerful than he had ever been. The rest of Team 1 was there as well, packing away everything that they could, and deleting everything that they couldn't. Guts Man hauled away a box of discs to the Skull Cruiser, and Cut Man wasn't far behind with the next one. The massive panel door lowered and shut behind them, but none of them noticed the shadow that dashed in just as the door closed.

"Wow, Elec Man..." Ice Man commented as he looked at the monitor's data. "Crystal Bot's brain sure is powerful. A triple processor mind? This is insane! Crystal Man must have stolen a small fortune in RAM to make this run quickly enough."

"Technically it is a quadruple processor mind." Fire Man noted from his seat in front of the supercomputer. "One of them serves to prevent viruses and hacking, and performs no other task. Elec Man is now a a virtual data vault."

As much as their leader liked being talked about, Elec Man was all business. "I'm going to report in and make certain that Dr. Wily is ready to go, so once you've destroyed this automated machine, get over to the Skull Cruiser. Fire Man, do you have the data for our next base?"

Fire Man handed Elec Man a copy of a data disc. "There is another island several thousand miles from here, and it has the appearance of non-habitation."

"Good then. I'll be staying here for a while, so once you're ready here you can go ahead and be the first ones to clear an area for the next Skull Castle. I'll have Team 2 arrange to defend this island from the traitors and prevent them from finding our new home, so don't worry about that."

"Aw, can't I stay behind and blow a few up?" Bomb Man asked. "That Wave Man has been asking for it for years. Water right next to a nuclear power core? Ah, that'd be a fine target!"

Elec Man snorted in amusement, appreciating the enthusiasm. "No, Wily needs you to clear the area on our new island for the fortress. I'd better get going. Hurry up and finish here."

As Elec Man opened the large door and left. Ice Man neared the automated machine and inserted a disc into it, downloading whatever information he deemed useful enough.

"That's the last thing we need." Fire Man said as he pulled two final discs from the supercomputer. "Bomb Man."

He didn't even need to give Bomb Man an order. The bulky robot heaved his explosive at the computer. Bits of wire and green panels flew all over the room, leaving a layer of computer trash scattered over everything.

"GAH!" Ice Man exclaimed as he ducked under the wave of rubbish. "I wish you wouldn't let him do that!"

"Hurry up with that automated machine, Ice Man!" A now over-excited Bomb Man exclaimed. "It's next!"

"Hold your horses, it's got a couple of minutes." Ice Man complained. "And at least wait for me to get out of the way of the shrapnel. Sheesh."

The other two stared at him wide-eyed.

"What?"

It took Ice Man a moment to notice that there was something standing behind him. He slowly turned around. And that was the very last thing he ever did.

-t-

Dr. Wily and Shade Man were busily preparing the second Skull Capsule. While the first had been destroyed, Wily liked to make sure that he had backups. However, the second was not quite flyable yet, and Wily was busily putting the last bits of the engine together in the hangar. He wished he had thought to do it sooner, but this week had quickly gone the opposite of how he had intended. Instead of being the warlord of Monstropolis, California, he was now a refugee from several of his own robots. Not that he cared that much about Team 5, but he knew that with Bass and Mega Man working together, this Skull Island was no longer safe. At the very least this escape would go quickly with all the help of the robot masters.

He gritted his teeth in anger. "And we've only just settled down here..."

"Lord Wily." Shade Man said in his very dignified vampire accent, bowing as he spoke. "The data you requested has been uploaded into the Capsule. Also, Elec Man is here with the location of our next settlement."

"Good, give it here." Wily practically snatched the disc that Elec Man handed him. "Alright, Elec Man, you know what to do. Don't even think about coming to the next location until the both of them are destroyed."

Elec Man knew exactly who his master was refering to. "Don't worry, I can take care them easily now."

"See that you do." Wily's threatening tone left Elec Man a little disturbed. Pushing a button on the console of the Capsule, Wily hailed the main lab. "Fire Man, have you retrieved all necessary data from the main lab and destroyed it yet?"

No response. Wily tried again and signalled Fire Man directly, in case he had already left the main lab, but there was still no answer. Wily was beginning to think that the worst had began. He went over to a communications monitor in the wall and turned it on, looking through the camera into the lab, which was a terrible mess.

"Looks like Bomb Man has been at work." Shade Man noted lightly.

Wily didn't answer. Looking more intently at the wreckage, he noticed a severed, white metal boot sticking out from a pile of twisted metal.

"That would be Ice Man..." he seethed. "Elec Man! Get down there now!"

Elec Man teleported there without hesitation. His environment immediately changed into one of blackened walls, broken glass, and shredded wires.

"Alright Bass, I know you're here. Come on out."

"I am out, smarty."

Elec Man snapped around to find Bass rather casually sitting atop a pile he made of Bomb Man and Fire Man, acting as if he hadn't a care in the world. Elec Man snarled, shooting out a burst of electricity. Even from his unprepared position, Bass was able to zip away and let the shock hit the two Team 1 robots that made up his chair.

"You know, Bass," Elec Man said. "It's interesting that you call me smart. Right now I'm using Crystal Bot's brain, and not to mention a few spare energy crystals we had lying around. I'm now not only immune to your shots, but I've got all of her battle AI and none of her pathetic Toad Man disease."

Bass rolled his eyes. "Duh. I saw the automatic machine. And I had the crystals in my busters removed, so you're not immune. You can die now."

Actually, Bass had forgotten to ask Auto to remove them, but the repair-bot had the foresight to do so anyway. But he wasn't going to admit that to Elec Man, so he just fired. Elec Man jumped over to the side, sending out another electric shock. This one made contact with Bass, and the impact immediately reminded him of the crystal club's energy beams; again, he stumbled aimlessly for a minute as he tried to protect himself and let his mind get back into order.

"How quickly you forget the effects of the crystal energy." Elec Man laughed. "YOU can die now!"

Bass' mind barely cleared in time for him to remember his strategy. He didn't resist as Elec Man shot him a second time, but held on to his last bit of rationality as the crystal-enhanced electric beam coursed through his circuits. Crumpling into a ball, he found that he could barely move. All he could do was sit there on the floor and wait as Elec Man neared him, lifting his hands to fry Bass just as he had fried Crystal Bot the day before.

But the dark robot wasn't finished. As soon as Elec Man was close enough, his yellow markings became brick red, and he engaged the echelon heatshock. Elec Man tried to resist, shooting back his own energy pulse. But the heatshock only reversed his electrical attack, causing Elec Man's own weapon to turn against him. The Team 1 robot screamed, but as his innards melted, the cry was cut off. The energy for Echelon Man's power drained quickly, however, and just as Elec Man finally was destroyed, the weapon had been all used up.

"Ugh, that sucked." Bass mused over his strategy as he downed an E tank. "I'm never doing that again."

Before departing the room, Bass went over and removed the recording device from the camera that had been watching him. He knew Wily had probably seen what happened, if the doctor was still on the island, but Bass didn't care. He hoped that his creator had seen every minute of it.

Wily watched as the monitor turned black. The camera had obviously been destroyed. Wily cringed, realizing what sort of destructive force he had created. Bitterly running off and not taking the time to muse over the irony, Wily went over to the Skull Capsule, looking back over his shoulder just once.

"Delay him!" Wily barked at Shade Man.

"Yes, Lord Wily." Shade Man flew off with determination.

Turning back to the Capsule to get going, Wily started to climb in. However, he soon found himself face to face with a growling purple dog that had the remains of Skull Capsule circuitry in its mouth. The doctor jumped back as Treble started barking loudly, snapping his jaws at his creator. Wily fell back onto the floor.

"SHADE MAN, GET BACK IN HERE!" Wily screamed, both furious and afraid.

Shade Man was out of earshot, however, and Wily could only scoot away from Treble as the metal teeth came closer and closer. However, Wily soon found that he could go backwards no farther, even though he knew the wall was still a few feet away. He looked up. The evil grin that so well personified Bass shined down on him.

"AAAUUUGGGH!"

Bass laughed so hard at Dr. Wily's scream that it gave the human time to stand up and try to get away. However, Bass wasn't caught off his guard. His fist shot out and clutched Wily's shoulder cruely, holding the doctor still so that Bass could finish his laugh.

"Oh man," the robot laughed. "I was just hoping that you would do that ridiculous begging you do when Rock corners you. But that, that right there was really funny, old man. Good job! Oh hey, if you've got anything really smart to say, go ahead and say it now. Make it good, because I'm sure everybody'll be interested the last words of a maniac. Oh yeah, my failsafes are gone." the robot held his buster up to the back of Wily's head. "Bye now."

Nothing happened.

"Huh?" Bass wondered. "What's wrong with my buster?"

He shoved Wily to the ground so that he could take a look. Seeing nothing seriously wrong with his arm (that he could identify), he instead started going through his mind to check his internal systems as Wily started to crawl away. Treble kept his eye on the doctor, so Bass wasn't worried about him escaping. But as he searched his mind, his worst fears were confirmed. The three laws had been programmed into him.

"AUTO!" Bass snarled, immediately trying to think of a way to get back at the repair-bot.

Regaining his confidence, Dr. Wily laughed. "Ah, now I see, That's what you get for trusting the 'good guys', Bass. But since now you're unable to do anything about it, I think I'll just leave!"

And Dr. Wily, walking casually around Treble (who also found himself subject to the rule of harming no humans), opened a door and made his exit. Bass, however, was unwilling to give up so quickly. Once Wily had gone through the door, he got an idea, then charged straight through the wall. Wily, who hadn't gone far, ducked as his creation neared him again.

"You again?" Wily said in his most condescending voice. "Just what do you think you can get away with?"

"A lot, actually!"

Having ripped a long pipe from the wall, Bass grabbed Wily and bent a part of it around his ankle, then bent the other side of it around a pillar.

"You can't do that!" Wily shouted.

"You're not hurt, are you?" Bass snapped. "But guess what. For whatever reason, Auto missed some of my old protocols that enable my free will. So maybe I can't shoot you directly. But..."

Bass punched the pillar. Chunks of plaster tiles fell from the roof and landed on Wily's head.

"That's a load bearing pillar!" Wily exclaimed.

"I know that! Why do you think I stuck you there?" Bass punched the pillar again, and Wily could hear creaking. "You order me around, find fault in everything I do, screw up my mechanic, and expect me to just deal with it? Who do you think you are?"

With the next impact, a piece of the framework for the ceiling tiles fell far too close for Wily's liking. Loving every moment of it, Bass continued to punch the pillar as more and more of the ceiling's building materials fell and piled on and around Wily. "I'm sorry!" he cried. "Please don't kill me!"

"Hehe..." Bass snickered. "Relax. I wasn't going to kill you anyway."

"...Really?" Wily looked up, sounding ever so slightly hopeful.

"REALLY." Bass stated in a way that was not at all comforting. "Now let's get going."

The violent machine took the pipe off of Wily's leg and dragged him away.

-t-

Jewel Man looked worried as he climbed the stairs up into the main laboratory. He had just arrived from the "gymnasium", a special room in the laboratory especially designed for the testing of new weapons. The Team 5 robots were complete, and going over their upgrades. All of the Team 9 robots, other than Spash Woman who prefered staying the water and would be waiting for them there, had arrived, and were also downstairs. All of them seemed fairly optimistic about working with the ex-Wily-bots, but Jewel Man was unsettled. He went over to the table that Mega Man was sitting on as the metallic arms completed the last of his repairs.

"Where's Auto?" the shiny robot asked.

"He's in another lab, working on putting Crystal Bot back together." Mega Man answered as the last metalic arm that worked on him retracted back into the ceiling. "He wants her to be as ready as possible when Bass comes back with her memories."

Jewel Man's expression was demure. "And why exactly are we trusting this fellow? May I remind you that he's been trying to kill you directly for several years now?"

"I'm not really worried about all of that." Mega Man said with a pleasant smile.

"Well, I'm still bothered by his behavior. He might have the three laws and a new directive, but he's still Bass." Jewel Man retorted. "I don't know him that well, but I do know that's he's entirely reckless."

"Yes, that's true." Rock agreed. "Which is why I'm going to look for him, now that I'm ready. He's been gone too long to have just swiped Crystal Bot's memories. There's no telling what he's doing now."

Suddenly a signal went off in his head, and Mega Man realized that he had a transmission from Roll, who was at the hospital with Dr. Light.

_" - Rock! - "_ she exclaimed. _" - Have you been watching the news? - "_

_" - No, why? - "_

_" - Turn it on! You won't believe it! - "_

While a curious Jewel Man stood by, Mega Man set the monitor to the local news. "-er supervillain Dr. Albert Wily has been brought to justice, not by local hero Mega Man, but long time rival Bass, also known as Forte." An earnest blonde woman reported. "In an uncharacteristic show of heroics, Bass has not only brought his own creator to the the police, but he also has made claims of turning away from a life of crime and becoming another champion of justice."

Jewel Man and Mega Man stared at each other, barely believing a word of what the newscaster said.

The news switched to a shot of Bass roughly shoving Dr. Wily up the walk of the police station, as reporters and curious onlookers lined the way. Dr. Wily looked pale, and his hair was all askew. A metal pipe was twisted around his wrists as a form of makeshift handcuffs. Bass, however, was enjoying himself, simply eating up all of the attention.

"Smile for the camera, old man." Bass said as he grabbed Wily in a headlock with his left arm, and made a peace sign with his right towards the line of reporters. Instantly a wave of camera flashes went off.

The next shots were of several excited human citizens, all very over-eager to speak to the reporters. One brown-haired boy spoke into the microphone, "Just yesterday he stopped this guy from stealing my bike!"

A little girl in thick, black-rimmed glasses came up from behind the boy and tugged on his shirt. "Wayne! Momma said we're supposed to be home now! We're gonna get in trouble!"

An alternate camera with a different angle showed Treble approaching the two children. He barked more happily than anyone had ever heard him before, and he started sniffing at the little humans.

"Puppy!" the little girl exclaimed as she went to pet him. "So cute!"

"You kids have a problem?" Bass said as he walked up.

"Yeah, we need to get home, and if we don't we'll get in trouble." the boy answered.

"It's all right. Treble will give you a ride. Back away, little girl, he's got to convert to jet mode."

Treble barked and converted, then let the two children climb onto his back. The girl was a little disappointed, because he wasn't "puppy" anymore, but she let her brother pull her onto Treble in front of him, despite the protests of concerned adults nearby. But before they took off, Wayne turned back to Bass.

"Wow, you're so much cooler than Mega Man!"

At the sight of this, Rock burst out laughing. Jewel Man just shook his head. "I can't believe you."

"What?" Mega Man smiled. "Isn't it funny? Instead of destroying me, he's going to beat me by trying to be the better, or maybe just a more popular, hero. And you know what? That's fine with me. Think of how many more people will be helped!"

Jewel Man looked more closely at the news, watching as they showed several similar clips. "Um, Rock, most of these were filmed an hour ago. He could be -"

"Shooting you in the head right now."

Several buster shots knocked Jewel Man to the floor, and Mega Man barely had time to react before Bass had knocked him down as well. Mega Man tried to get up and shoot, but Bass stepped on his arm, pinning him down. The dark robot then shoved a zip drive into his USB and stepped back.

"Ow, what was that?" Mega Man asked as he stood back up. His robotic mind analyzed the information on the drive. "The scematics of Skull Castle?"

"That's right." Bass nodded. "If everyone's upgraded we'll need to get going."

"Y'know, you could have just handed this to me." Mega Man frowned as he pulled the drive out of his neck.

"No, I couldn't." Bass grinned devilishly. "You're getting slack, Rock, and you shouldn't think you're ever safe, even in the lab."

"That's just a lame excuse for beating me up and you know it."

"Like I'd ever admit that."

Bass equipped the emit shield, and suddenly jewels began to orbit him.

"Not cool!" an angry Jewel Man exclaimed. "Since when can steal my shielding?"

"Hehe," the dark robot grinned. "Just don't think you'll ever be able to sneak up on me, Top Man. Sheesh, why do shiny robots think they're so stealthy? Anyway, where's everyone else?"

"They're downstairs testing their new upgrades."

"Alright. Let's see what they can do."

Mega Man and Bass went down the stairs, and Jewel Man grumpily followed behind them, only to nearly fall down the steps as Treble shoved him to the side, growling as he went to follow his master. Jewel Man was beginning to hate Bass.

"Hey Bass," Mega Man asked. "Since when do you like children?"

"I don't. Ugh. Why do you think I let Treble take them home by himself?"

Down in the gymnasium, Bass was suddenly reminded of Skull Island; the crowd of robot masters annoyed him. But he tolerated it for the time being and watched to see what the Team 5 robots were capable of. Wave Man's harpoon now had a much more powerful range, and if he desired, he could launch a harpoon with a chain attached and swing it to retrieve distant items. Not only that, but on his hose arm large fingers had been attached. He could lift objects now, and the fingers would spread away if he wanted to shoot his wave. He was speaking with Hornet Man, who was trying to get him to use his harpoon to catch hornets.

Star Man was with Galaxy Man, whom he didn't seem to like very much. Galaxy Man was bouncing around him, very hyper. As Star Man shot his shield, Bass noticed that he no longer froze when he threw it, and was also able to shoot chunks of asteroids at Galaxy Man, who absorbed them with his weapon. Star Man could also shoot down an asteroid shower for multiple targets. Nearby was Gyro Man, noticably happier than he had previously been. He now had a spread shot of smaller gyro blades, and his battle AI had been vastly improved; he was doing well at dodging Tornado Man's attacks.

Stone Man's battle AI had also been improved, and he could shoot brick clumps that would burst out and cause extra damage. Charge Man was ran past him, not only faster, but happy to be able to shoot from a buster his chunks of coal. He dodged Magma Man and Concrete Man with ease before Wave Man told him to settle down.

Gravity Man's expression was strange. He was happy, but at the same time he appeared to glitch a little, almost as if he was sad. It happened when robots tried to express emotions they didn't normally attempt or were too extreme. Gravity Man stared at his hands, converted one into a buster, then smiled. His new buster shots were powerful, and he could charge them as well. Not only that, but when he changed the gravity of nearby enemies, he wouldn't have to change his own gravity as well. But at the moment he was standing alone, deep in thought, examining all of the technical and robotic data that now resided in his hard drive. He was a technician-bot, now.

"Look, look!" Napalm Man excitedly said. "I have hands! Glorious hands that convert to napalm launchers!"

Plug Man just laughed. Napalm Man had been going on like that for a while. He could also shoot upwards and aim far better than he ever could before. And he could jump.

"Ah, if I was like this when I fought Mega Man," Napalm Man continued. "I could have beaten him...or at least done better. Look! I can throw now!"

Napalm Man promptly snatched Galaxy Man out of the air and threw him across the room, which didn't bother Star Man at all. Jewel Man jumped forward and caught his sibling, irritated.

"Wow, nice! Throw him back! I can catch him!"

"Shut up!" Bass snarled. "Everybody c'mere, now! If you haven't forgotten the reason why we're all here, there's forty-eight robot masters, and mechaniloids besides, that we have to deal with, and deal with now."

"Roll told me you said there were fifty-four." Mega Man mentioned as the robot masters drew over to the large monitor at the side of the room.

"There were." Bass smirked, then turned his attention to the others as Mega Man put the zip drive into the monitor. "First of all, Gyro Man, leave now and go monitor anyone who tries to leave Skull Island. Let them get far enough away so that the other robot masters don't notice you, then destroy them. Go."

Gyro Man was surprised that Bass was giving him such an important job. "Alright."

Galaxy Man lifted his hand, waving it as he spoke in his ecclectic electronic voice. "I can fly as well. I'll go too!"

"Follow the green guy." Bass pointed to a departing Gyro Man, then turned to the others as the flying robots left. "Alright this on the monitor is the what the castle looks like, Team 9. Also, I got some data on this other island they were planning on going to. They're not that stupid, so they probably know that I know. All the same, Wave Man, you take three masters and go check that out. Go to Skull Island if nobody's there, call us if you need help. Can you handle that?"

"Of course."

Bass threw a disc with the island's coordinates at Wave Man, but an over-enthusiastic Napalm Man caught it for him.

"Skull Island has a lot of underwater defenses, most of which are pretty well hidden." Mega Man spoke. "Most of these won't be a problem, and Splash Woman can handle the ones that will. All the same, the outer land defenses will be bigger a problem. Charge Man, Stone Man, and Concrete Man, if you can destroy the walls as we go in, that will save us a lot of time. Bass and I will be going first to start things off, and once I get them disorganized you come in. Everyone else, spread out, and try to keep the robot masters as seperate as possible."

"Token lame guy," Bass pointed at Plug Man. "You stay behind and monitor everyone. Auto's busy repairing Crystal Bot, and I'm pretty sure Roll can't keep track of all of us by herself." Not waiting for Plug Man to react, he went on. "And who's in charge of Team 9?"

"Uh, nobody." Magma Man answered. "We don't really work together that often."

"Ugh. You guys suck." Bass complained. "Alright, Top Man's in charge of you when you get to the island."

The Team 5 robots snickered at the nickname, and Jewel Man scowled at Bass.

Bass shrugged. "Prove you don't suck and maybe I'll stop calling you Top Man...maybe."

"Wave Man," Mega Man asked. "Who would you like to take with you to the alternate island?"

"Preferably Napalm Man, Star Man, and Magma Man, if he would like to come with us. We'll need robots with lots of destructive power to make absolutely certain there is no Wily-bot presence."

Magma Man nodded, seemingly unworried about traveling alone with three Wily-bots. "Okay."

"That leaves us with ten on Skull Island, nine if you don't count Splash Woman. Nine against forty-six." Mega Man noted, thinking that it may have been a good idea to contact the Cossack-bots, if there had been time for them to arrive. "Will that be enough?"

"It had better." Bass commented. "Now let's go."

"Our numbers might not be the best," Mega Man said encouragingly to everyone. "But when we work together, I'm sure we'll be able to defeat the Wily-bots once and for all! Eddie will be coming along too, so there will be plenty of power-ups. Just call him if you're getting low on power."

The others nodded. Wave Man spoke to Team 5 quietly, and they all nodded solemnly. They had less reason than the others to fight their old companions, but their directives had also been changed, and they all knew what would happen when they abandoned Wily in the first place. It was too late for objections. Mega Man called Roll, telling her to come and monitor everyone, then signalled Beat and Rush also. But as he did, he noticed that Treble was wandering by himself, not following the robot masters to where Dr. Light's aircraft were.

"Uh, what's wrong, Treble?" Mega Man asked.

Treble barked and snarled a bit. Mega Man didn't have a clue what the purple wolf had said, but Rush arrived, barked and translated it for him. Basically the wolf had told Mega Man that he was waiting on his master and the blue dweeb could mind his own business.

Rock was able to figure it out. "You're worried about Crystal Bot too, aren't you boy?"

Treble looked surprised that Mega Man had been so perceptive. He just nodded and whined, leaning his head on his front paws. Treble didn't like it that the nice bot that had upgraded him was in a state of disrepair. He also disliked Rock calling him "boy", so he made himself vocal about it, in rather less than savory terms.

"Don't worry," Mega Man said, not understanding Treble's last few barks (Rush didn't bother to translate it). "Auto knows what he's doing. Crystal Bot will be fine."

"She better be." Bass said darkly as he came down the stairs again, though somehow his voice didn't seem to carry the same threat as usual.

"You ready?"

"Yeah. Let's end this." Again, the black and gold robot seemed a little less himself as he, Rock, and the dogs began walking towards the flight hangar. "Hey Rock, I wanted to ask you...back when we were fighting Wily, why? Why did you save me?"

Bass looked genuinely confused, and a not a little bothered by being rescued by the bomber. His pride was obviously wounded. How could his greatest enemy stand between him and death?

Mega Man smiled. "Bass, you never were an evil robot. Sort of chaotic, but not evil."

"Chaotic? What does that mean?"

"Um, well, you've always done what you wanted to do, bad or good. Chaotic, unpredictable. You were able to put our past aside and fight for good against King, despite hating me and going against Wily's wishes."

"Pssht. You know that wasn't for 'the greater good'."

"So what? You showed that you can overcome whatever evil Wily programmed you with. And you did that again when you changed your directive. Whatever you think you're capable of, you're capable of better. And besides, no robot should ever go to waste."

Bass mused over this, not certain what to think. Mega Man seemed sure of it. And he had been a good guy ever since he'd been built, so Bass guessed he might know what he was talking about. Mega Man was naiive, and quick to consider any robot his friend. It was then Bass realized that all robots were Mega Man's friends - if they would accept it.

"Rock?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't suck."

"Wow, that's the nicest thing you ever said to me."

"Don't get used to it." Bass muttered.

Mega Man just rolled his eyes and laughed. That was the Bass he knew.

\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- I just want to talk about the whole Korean thing. I can't believe no one got it, lol. _Cheosong hamnida _means "I'm sorry", formal tone.

Hint #1 was "As it was, he felt like he had failed her."

Wouldn't you apologize?

And hint #2:

"_Choesong hamnida_..." he said silently, his lips barely moving. But even as he said it, he knew it was completely stupid. Crystal Bot couldn't hear him. She was powerless and mindless, and it was already **too late for apologies**.

BAH! What do they teach at schools today? Okay, LOL, just kidding. I don't mean it, and you guys are great. Thanks for reviewing so much, and I would give you a cookie anyway, but I ated them.

- Bah, I kept typing "Elect Man" instead of "Elec Man". It's annoying, and I wouldn't vote for him anyway.

- No, fyi, I'm not going to show a massive robot master battle in the next chapter. One, I'm not entirely confident in my fight writing abilities (though I daresay that the fights a couple of chapters ago were fun), two, mass military strategies escape me, and three, do you guys really want to read about battles? Let's see...um, two more chapters to go? Yep.

- Oh hey, props to Tylterra for giving me Crystal Bot's alternate musical name. I promise it will show up before the end of the story, and you'll get to find out which of her ideas I picked.


	12. Family

Crystal Bot opened her eyes.

At first the sight of metal arms, cords, and wires confused her, until her mental balancers informed her that she was laying on her back. She sat up, noticing that she was on a metal table, in a small room filled with various computer screens and tools. A single door that looked very imposing and difficult to open was the only exit, not including a small window behind her, which also looked hard to move. Crystal Bot could see a little of the city and the tops of several trees from where she sat, but she didn't get up to get a better look. A stash of green-handled tools lay on a smaller table against the wall, and she recognised them as the ones she normally kept within her armor; her helmet was sitting with them as well, and her guitar leaned nearby against the wall.

Crystal Bot realized that she was in some sort of robotics room, and the device above her was an automated machine, one that didn't belong to Wily. She hugged her knees to herself, numbly wondering where she could possibly be. She shut her eyes and started sorting through her recent memory files, some of which seemed out of place. She twitched as she recalled the argument with Dr. Wily and the subsequent failed escape from Elec Man.

Here her memories started to feel strange and distant, like she was watching what happened through the eyes of a stranger. Crystal remembered waking up after she had been electricuted, wanting to fight Mega Man. What he had said about Crystal Man played in her head over and over, but she didn't want to believe it. She shuddered to herself as the images went through her head of her fight with Bass, and how she had destroyed two of her own team members in the process. And the very last moment, where everything had suddenly faded away...the very last image in her head had been Bass' glowing red eyes and snarling teeth as he shoved the gyro blade into her gut.

Opening her eyes, Crystal Bot stared around the room again, too frightened and upset to move away from her huddled position on the table. She only took a long strand of her auburn, synthetic hair and started twisting it in her fingers. After a few minutes, the door opened slowly.

"Crystal Bot?'

The robot on the table looked up. Roll was at the half opened door and she seemed concerned. Crystal Bot turned and looked down at the floor.

_"So that's where I am..."_ she thought, bemused.

"Are you okay?" Roll asked her.

"...No." Crystal Bot managed to answer despite her emotion. "How can I be?"

Roll didn't seem deterred by Crystal Bot's attitude, only saddened. She walked up and sat down on the table next to Crystal, trying to show her sympathy. Crystal Bot only stared down at her hands, not sure what else to do.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I was just pretending to be your friend, Roll. Don't expect too much of me."

Roll paused, thinking of something she might say to make Crystal Bot feel better. Roll, as much as she had been deceived, wanted Crystal to be her friend. She wanted Crystal to know that she was safe here. Thinking of a way to get Crystal Bot to warm up to her a bit, she decided to change the topic from what was going on to something else.

"Thanks for Dub, by the way. He's really useful, but I don't get it. Why did you give him to me even after we found out about you? He doesn't even have any programming for stealing."

The edge's of Crystal's mouth went up slightly. "Uh, hehe...that was the beauty of Dub. He wouldn't take anything from you unless he was merged with my pipi. Then they'd de-merge, and you'd be none the wiser."

Roll laughed. "Leave it to you to think of something like that. Bruce is such a cute bird. I'd never suspect him. He's around here somewhere. Oh wait...he's not going to mess with anything, is he?"

"I don't think so." Crystal wondered who told Roll what her pipi's name was. Sighing, she asked. "But...is it really true? Did I really get built by Crystal Man?"

"That's what Bass and Jewel Man said." Roll told her. "Apparently your entire team knows too."

Crystal Bot nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess all of the robot masters must have known. But Jewel Man...isn't he one of yours?"

"Yes, Crystal Man used him to get the parts he needed to build you. And he also hid the information we needed to save you on Jewel Man's CPU. Dr. Wily...he deleted your AI. But Jewel Man had a copy. He also had your whole team's upgrades stored. You should see Team 5 now. They're a lot more powerful. Crystal Man had a lot of good ideas for making them better."

"But...Stone Man and Gyro Man...I...killed them..."

"Oh no, they're fine now. Better than fine. You should have seen how happy Stone Man was when he found out his stone shot wasn't so hard to aim anymore. Auto upgraded everyone else with Crystal Man's ideas too."

"What?" Crystal Bot asked with suspicion, finally looking up at the other girl-bot. "You stole my team and reprogrammed them?"

"Wow, you really have no idea." Roll shook her head. "They left Wily out of their own choice."

Crystal Bot's eyes widened in shock as Roll continued. "Apparently Wily intended to reprogram all of them after you helped Rock. They didn't know what else to do, so they ended up coming to us. Bass, Gyro Man, and Stone Man were so angry at Wily at what he had done to you, that they did what they could to stop you from being a mechaniloid. They're your friends."

"I...I don't understand..." the technician bot tried to sort out her thoughts. "Forte-kun...he was so angry at me. All I wanted was for him to destroy Mega Man, but when Da- um, Dr. Wily reprogrammed me, Forte must have been furious that I was sent out against Rock. I even stole Trebby! That was why he destroyed me." Crystal Bot buried her face in her hands. "I bet he just hates me forever!"

"Wow, is that what you think happened?" the housecleaner commented with surprise. "He was mad about Wily reprogramming you, just like the others. You should have seen how upset he was when we first thought we couldn't fix you. And he's the one that got your memory back-ups from Wily. Your guitar too."

"But why?"

Roll considered her words for a moment. "Maybe I shouldn't tell you this, but Bass told me earlier he was planning on running away from Wily, and he wanted to take you with him as his mechanic. I didn't get what he meant at the time, but he said you'd go along with him if he told you about your creator."

"That...sort of doesn't surprise me." Crystal Bot said, still looking a little confused as she tried to sort everything out in her head. "Forte and Dr. Wily didn't get along at all. But...Crystal Man...my true father...I don't think I would have believed Forte-kun if he had told me earlier. I liked working for Wily. I got to make bombs. Though I guess maybe I should have been suspicious why my name is 'Crystal Bot' instead of something like 'Crystal Woman'."

"According to what we have from Jewel Man," Roll added in earnest. "Crystal Man specifically designed you to serve Wily and be loyal to him. He was trying to do everything he could to make sure that Wily wouldn't dismantle you once he found out about you. Crystal Man wanted to make sure you were safe."

The shiny girl lowered her eyes. "And he ended up being the one killed. I remember...I remember fighting Mega Man a long time ago. But that's not my memory at all. It's Crystal Man's, placed inside my own head, just so I wouldn't realize that I'm not the original...that there was someone else... Ugh, I used to think that Wily was so fun and nice, but it turns out he really is a big, selfish, meanie! I...I _hate _him!"

Depressed, Crystal Bot hunched down and faced away from the Light-bot. Roll sympathetically placed her hand on Crystal Bot's shoulder, but the technician immediately shook it off, then jumped off the table and turned back to Roll with anger in her eyes.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled pointing a threatening finger at the girl in red. "I'm not some lame, weak friend of yours! I'm a villain of the finest caliber! A crafty monster building your demise! Proud servant of Doctor Albert Wi-" her words abruptly ended as she realized what she was saying. Stunned, Crystal Bot just sank down on the floor, glitching a bit, and returned to a hunched position, hiding her face behind her knees in melancholy.

Silence reigned for a time as Roll tried to figure out what she should do. Roll had no idea what it meant to be betrayed by her creator, someone she considered as her father. There was only one thing she could think of to do. She carefully got down from the repair table and pulled a chip out of her pocket, going over to hand it to Crystal Bot. The blue and green girl looked up.

"What is that?"

"Wave Man told me to give it to you. I think it's some of his memories, because he said it would clear things up."

Crystal Bot was uncertain if she could trust Roll, but she figured the naiive girl's intentions had to be honest enough. She took the chip, holding it in her hand a moment and staring at it dully.

"Um, where is Wave Man?"

"He's been on Skull Island for a while now with everyone else, getting rid of the last robot masters and destroying the Skull Fortress." Roll answered. "I think they'll be on their way back soon."

This thought depressed Crystal Bot, though she understood why it had to be done. Mega Man was a defender of peace, after all, and with some of his robots leaving him, Wily was sure to be anything but peaceful. And Crystal Bot knew that Wily would destroy her, his "daughter", if he caught her again. She couldn't go back, and she wasn't even sure that she wanted to. As much as she missed her violent life, she knew it was over.

"And...uh, where is Forte now?" she asked Roll.

"He's on the island with the others, why?"

Crystal Bot raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you afraid he's going to destroy Mega Man?"

"Well, he said he wasn't going to. After Rock saved his life, he seemed to lose heart for it."

"WHAT?" Crystal Bot almost screamed. "But...but...I upgraded him! I made him so much better! It's Forte's destiny to beat Mega Man!"

Roll, shocked, pulled out another disc from the side wall, sticking it into her own neck. "Um, here, let me download what I saw of the fight, and some other stuff too. You'll want to see it. Then I think you'll understand."

Roll handed the disc to Crystal Bot, who was a little afraid of finding out what had happened. The technician stared at both discs as Roll tried to gauge her reaction.

"I need to process these." she said quietly as she stuck the discs in her hood and went to pick up her guitar. "I'm going to go sit on the roof."

"The roof?"

"It's a 'quirk' programmed in me to like heights. I have no idea." Crystal Bot shrugged hopelessly, then went for the door.

Crystal just turned away. She hadn't been in that part of Light's lab before, but she figured it couldn't be hard to find an exit in the place. Roll followed behind her with uncertainty, and Crystal wished she wouldn't. But she was a stranger, so she couldn't blame the housekeeper. One of the windows showed several trees, as it was on the side of the house that didn't face the public. She decided that she liked that view, so Crystal Bot promptly opened the window and climbed out onto the roof. Roll, thinking that it may be best to give Crystal some time, reluctantly walked away.

Pulling the chips out of her hood while she swung her legs past the roof's ledge, Crystal Bot wondered which one she should look at first. Deciding that she was more curious about her past at the moment, she took Wave Man's chip and inserted it. Accessing the files, data images appeared in her head, and she could see the past quite literally through Wave Man's eyes.

**Wave Man and Gravity Man were walking down through one of the mostly completed halls of the then new Skull Castle. Gravity Man, who didn't seem to be in a very good mood, was hauling a box. Wave Man was holding nothing, mostly due to the fact that he only had a hose for one arm and a harpoon for the other. **

**"Gravity Man, you shouldn't complain." Wave Man said. "Your research is very valuable to Dr. Wily. That's the reason he didn't choose you for his technical assistant."**

**"I know that." The maroon robot muttered, his face contorted in angry jealousy. "But Crystal Man doesn't even **_**like **_**being a scientist! It's bad enough that this guy is our leader, but to make Crystal into his assistant mechanic as well? Come on, I'm the natural choice for that, out of us! Who on our team knows more than me? ...Uh...no offense."**

**"It's alright. I know my limitations." Wave Man calmly responded. "But think about it this way. Crystal Man is certainly not unintelligent, and also he was pretty miserable at being a fortune-teller. Wily was only thinking of a way to make Crystal Man useful."**

**"Maybe so, but I should have been chosen anyway. I'm sure Wily could find some other job for Crystal Man." Gravity Man stopped at another hallway. "I'll see you later then."**

**"Charge Man will be there soon with the automated machine parts."**

**"Alright."**

**Wave Man went alone down the hall, encountering both Dr. Wily and Elec Man as they came from the opposite direction. **

**"Ah, Wave Man." Dr. Wily said. "What is the status of the castle?"**

**"My team is putting your main lab together now. Team 8 is nearly done with the outer defenses, and all wings except the east wing are nearing completion. I doubt that the east wing will be too much trouble. Skull Castle should be fully operational in a week."**

**"Good, good. You are all getting very good at this." Wily gave one of his rare compliments, not realizing that they were good at building Skull Castles because those castles kept getting destroyed. "I'd like to see Mega Man discover this base!"**

**"Mega Man's a real idiot." Elec Man agreed. "I can't believe he actually thought that robot in the cage was Dr. Light, even after Proto Man came and told him it wasn't."**

**"That reminds me." Wily mentioned, his mood tempering somewhat. "We're going to need to come up with a way to protect our information from Proto Man. Any -"**

**Suddenly they heard the sound of metal hitting metal. Getting quiet, they listened to see if it would happen again, and after a moment, it did. Dr. Wily managed to hear the direction of the sound, and he turned to a vent that was near the floor. Pulling out a screwdriver, Wily got down and removed the vent cover. The angle Wave Man was standing at didn't allow him to see what it was at first, but a burst of giggling came out from the vent, and Wily's expression was stunned.**

**"Grandpa! Aw man, you found me!" **

**Out of the vent came a very small robot, about two foot six inches high. It was almost human looking, except that its head was a little too large for its body, and it wore a green and cyan dress, as well as a gold colored wire tiara around its head, topped with a glass orb. It tripped over its long auburn hair as it clumsily stumbled out of the vent, rolled on the floor, and sat there laughing.**

_"That looks like a weird, miniature Roll." _Crystal Bot observed, a little repulsed.

**"And...who...are you?" Wily was obviously trying to keep his anger in check, and yet also a bit amused by the cute machine.**

**"My name is Crystal Bot, Grandpa." The little thing giggled as she struggled to get to her feet and balance. "Wow, you're so smart that you caught me. Aw man! I wanted to have the surprise all ready for you, but you caught me first! I'm impressed!"**

**The unstable girl-bot toddled her way over to Wave Man and started jumping up and down with excitement. "Ooh, ooh! Uncle Wave Man! Pick me up! Daddy says Grandpa can't pick me up because it'll hurt his back."**

**Wave Man looked at Wily, who merely shrugged. Uncertainly Wave Man lowered his hose arm, and the girl-bot sat down on it, allowing the water robot to lift her up. Elec Man just stared with disgust at the strange machine as it smiled sweetly and waved at him.**

**"And what surprise did you want to put together, Crystal Bot?"**

**"Huh?" the girl asked. "how did you know about the surprise? Aw, you caught me! You're so smart, Grandpa! You figured out the surprise and my name all at once by yourself!" Turning to Elec Man, she waved at him again.**

**The robots and the scientist all stared at each other.**

**"Hehehe...there's Elec Man!" the girl-bot suddenly exclaimed. "Scary Elec Man! Ah, he caught me! But wait, Grandpa already did! Ooh, Grandpa let me show you the surprise! Go that way, Wave Man! How did you know I wanted you to pick me up?"**

**It was obvious Crystal Man had built her, so Wily decided it would be better if they went to Crystal Man's lab, where they thought the girl-bot was pointing, to see if the "suprise" was there.**

**"Should I shut her down?" Elec Man asked, thinking that the fingerless Wave Man would have trouble doing so himself.**

**"No no no no no no!" the girl-bot exclaimed. "I'll be good! Grandpa, say no! Please, please, please! Uh...please what?"**

**"Well, not right now." Wily carefully answered. "Let's see what she does."**

**"I'm a technician, that's what I does!" Crystal Bot proudly pointed to herself. "I am so smart, but not as smart as Grandpa!" **

**As they entered the lab, she jumped down from Wave Man's arm and clumsily did another rolling landing, complete with very girly giggling. She stumbled over to one of the computers on the wall and hopped up and down, trying to reach a button too high up to reach. Dr. Wily pushed it for her, and a nearby monitor lit up with the scematics of Team 5 robots. **

**"Tada! Surprise! Grandpa, Grandpa, Grandpa!" Crystal Bot exclaimed, running up and hugging Dr. Wily's legs, as that was all she could reach. "I was going to upgrade everybody! They're gonna be so cool, and then they're gonna all fight Mega Man, and they're all gonna beat him down! Raaaarrrr! I wasn't supposed to get caught, because it was gonna be your surprise for your birthday. Happy Birthday, Grandpa! I wish Elect Man didd-didn't catchd meee! Zo scaree-zzt!"**

**"What's going on?" Wave Man asked.**

**Dr. Wily didn't answer, but he had been thinking the entire time they were walking down the hall, and he obviously had a very clear idea of what was wrong with Crystal Bot. He peered at her, having the appearance of trying to solve her glitches. And he also had the appearance of someone who was starting to get very upset.**

**"Aaoouchies, Grandpaaa." Crystal Bot whined, holding her hands against her head. "Whatt'sz wronk wiffft meee? Peasze fixkss meee. Haaapy Bifffday!"**

**"Don't worry, Crystal Bot." Dr. Wily said soothingly, yet strangely, as he reached for her power switch. "I can fix you."**

**"Yaayaa! I lovez youuu, Gwanpaa-zzt!"**

**Dr. Wily shut her down. Then stood up, his face an expression of absolute hatred.**

**"Get Crystal Man in here now." he seethed through gritted teeth. "He owes us an explanation for all of this."**

Crystal Bot clung a little to the edge of the roof as the memory ended. She had been like _that_ when she was first built? Apparently the three computers that made up her thinking mind weren't properly coordinated, and so each was trying to act as a separate mind. But Wily didn't seem too bad...for himself. Inwardly Crystal Bot hoped that perhaps Wily had actually cared, and that whatever he had done was for the best. She realized that that wasn't the only memory on the disc, so she activated the next one with a timid hope, and set the third to activate as soon as the second was finished.

**Wave Man was still in Crystal Man's lab, looking at the screen after screen of Team 5's scematics, all upgraded, all vastly improved over the original Wily models. Wily was looking at them as well, getting more and more irritated at every screen. Wave Man avoided saying anything, but he glanced over at the table in the middle of the room. Little Crystal Bot was there, deactivated. Other than a wire in her USB port, she seemed unchanged.**

**The door burst open. Elec Man roughly shoved Crystal Man into the room, who still managed in with an air of dignity. Pulling his arm away from Elec Man's grasp, he went over to the center of the room, eyes widening as he saw Crystal Bot. He closed his eyes for a moment, bracing himself. When he opened them again, a furious Wily was before him. Crystal Man had the look of someone expecting it for a long time.**

**"What is all of this?" Wily began, his face already turning red as he gestured at all of the monitors. "How long have you been working on it? How long have you been working behind my back?"**

**"Master, I knew your reaction would be this way." Crystal Man began, trying his hardest not to be nervous.**

**"Oh, so for ONCE you CAN actually see the future?" Wily sneered. **

**"I was hoping that you would discover this at a later date." Crystal Man went over to the side and pushed several buttons, letting a screen with more technical specifications appear. "In case my motives appear unclear, these are all of my plans. My only wish was to upgrade my team, and with these upgrades I am certain that we would be able to destroy Mega Man and secure Monstropolis."**

**"And her?" Wily asked, dark tones rising in his voice.**

**"Crystal Bot was to carry out these changes. It would have been easy for you to discover my aims if I myself upgraded Team 5, especially with my other duties. I assume you have already seen her AI; she is designed to carry on as your assistant, master."**

**"Did you for once think that **_**I**_** might have plans for Team 5?" Wily shouted. "Since when do I need you to decide how I operate? I know what I'm doing!"**

**"Master, your behavior..." Crystal Man stopped himself. "I did not do this in rebellion. Only for your good."**

**"No, Crystal Man, don't stop." Wily's expression narrowed poisonously. "Say what you were going to say."**

**The robot didn't want to continue, but his programming forced him to speak. "Your current plans are...flawed. You have this tendancy to build one team, then forget them and move on to new things and new experiments. Had you merely stuck with Team 2 and focused on upgrading them, there would have been no need to create more of us." Crystal Man went over and gently touched his creation's shoulder. "Please, master, do not destroy her. I put much effort into her, and she is absolutely loyal to you. I have already given her my own knowledge. Let her carry on the mechanical work. I...do not care for it."**

**Already furious, Wily snapped. "And why should I do anything for you? You as much as called me an idiot! Look how you treat me! You were nothing but a stupid fortune teller before, and once I give you a real job, you pull this stunt! And now you say you don't want to be a mechanic anymore? You were a pathetic fortune teller! You couldn't even do that right!"**

**Elec Man immediately supported Dr. Wily. "And how can you insult the doctor by creating this piece of junk and say she's your replacement? All she does is glitch! Nothing but shoddy work with shoddy materials."**

**"No, Elec Man, not shoddy materials..." Wily said carefully. "In fact, materials from Dr. Light. Now Crystal Man, tell me more about this Mega Man X. How exactly did you come into possession of his blueprints?"**

**"Please forgive me, master..." Crystal Man cringed. "I have deleted that information. It was...necessary."**

**"WHAT-!"**

**"No, listen!" Traces of anger appeared on Crystal Man's face. "I have the information on Mega Man X himself! All of that is on the computers! Only the information on how I obtained it is gone! You can look there on the computers to see everything! Surely this new project of Dr. Light is worth something to you!"**

**"It is." Dr. Wily said, surprising everyone. "In fact...it may convince me to keep little Crystal after all."**

**"You can't be serious!" Elec Man protested. "She was made by this miscreant, and who knows what he's put into her?"**

**"I can find out." Dr. Wily didn't like anyone underestimating him. "If **_**this**_** machine is the best Crystal Man can come up with, I doubt any of his programs will be difficult to hack. I didn't give him the skill for that."**

**Crystal Man was still focused on his creation, sadly looking down at her. Robots were barely capable of emotion, but what little he had urged him to take little Crystal's hand. He didn't look up when Wily glared at him.**

**"Wave Man." Dr. Wily walked over to the amphibian robot, looking very frightening as he approached the perspective of the memory. "I've heard Elec Man's opinion, but what do you think?"**

**"Crystal Bot has done nothing wrong." Wave Man reluctantly began. "If her previous behavior means anything, then we have no reason to suspect that she'll rebel. I think, perhaps, it would be a good idea to keep her. In any case, she seems harmless." **

**Dr. Wily nodded, even smiling slightly. "Good, I agree."**

**Elec Man was startled. "You can't mean that!"**

**"Of course I do. Crystal Bot is the one example I have of how Dr. Light's new project works. Since I have this data, it will also be helpful with Ze- my other project. Good job, Crystal Man." Dr. Wily's voice was not comforting, and Crystal Man cringed once more at the sound. "I know you're not capable of betraying me, but I'm still a little mystified as to how you did all of this behind my back. Oh wait, yes, I gave you some freedom protocols. I trusted you. I TRUSTED YOU!"**

**All of the robots jumped when shouted, and a frightened Crystal Man still wouldn't look at him. "Thank you for sparing her, Master. I...I understand that this will require me to be reprogrammed." he said gently, still holding the girl-bot's hand. "But I can accept that, Master, without complaint."**

**Wily walked behind Crystal Man as he was talking. "No, I don't think that will be necessary."**

**"No?"**

**Wily shut Crystal Man down, then pulled a drill out of his lab coat pocket. He unscrewed the back of Crystal Man's head and pulled out two electronic panels. His temper flaring up, he threw both on the ground and immediately stomped on them, Crystal Man's identity crumbling into little green pieces under his shoe.**

Crystal Bot gasped and glitched, trying as hard as she could not to scream with anger. Her creator didn't deserve what had been done to him. Furious, her eyes hardened and twitched as she pounded her fists into the roofing tiles.

_"HOW DARE HE?"_ Crystal Bot fumed. _"How DARE that man destroy my father and make me call him by that name?"_

But the memory wasn't over yet, so she continued to watch, still trembling with fury and wishing that robots could cry.

**"Wave Man." Wily spoke sternly, obviously trying to keep himself in control. "Exactly how many of you were involved in this?"**

**"None but him, I promise." Wave Man confirmed. "Would you like us to head to the main lab so that you can check our hard drives?"**

**"Yes, good. Very smart of you, Wave Man. And so you know, you're now in charge of Team 5. Let me first emphasize that I would rather not take the trouble of reprogramming all of them. Make sure they aren't going to have any problems." Wily threatened ominously.**

**"I understand." Wave Man's voice was calm, as it always was.**

The third memory, a fairly short one, started automatically.

**The seven remaining members of Team 5 were gathered in a room of the Skull Castle, one of the storage rooms, as it was part of their typical duties to complete inventories and ensure proper logistics, among other things. But none of the team was very active at that point, and instead they all looked depressed. Star Man, the biggest loner out of all of them, secluded himself more than usual, and could barely be seen as he was half hidden in the back by stacks of crates. Gyro Man was furious, and Stone Man beside him was sitting on the floor, aimlessly playing with the bricks that made up his right hand. Napalm Man seemed fidgety, but was trying to keep calm.**

**"Have you seen her yet?" Charge Man asked, the only one out of all of them curious enough to be excited (though not very). "What does she look like?"**

**"Much the same as her creator. She is activated, and is headed this way." Wave Man answered, before turning to Gravity Man, who was sitting over to the side, consumed in his own thoughts of regret. "Wish you were the leader now?" Wave Man asked with light, joking sarcasm.**

**Gravity Man frowned and shook his head, not even able to pretend to be jovial. "No, no I'm good. I can't believe...Crystal Man was going to upgrade us...we could have been...gah! He should have told us what he was doing! We could have kept her a secret!" But Gravity Man's anger was weak, and the hatred he previously held for the crystaline bot was obviously no more. "We couldn't do anything...what was wrong with him?"**

**"I know!" Gyro Man exclaimed, angriest of all. "He didn't deserve this!"**

**"Do not speak of him again." Wave Man warned. "It's all our heads if you do. Does everyone understand? Crystal Bot is Team 5, and she always has been. That means she is one of us, whatever else she may be. We must make her feel welcome when she comes."**

**The others nodded, and Napalm Man spoke up. "Dr. Wily knows what he is doing. Maybe it's better this way."**

**The rest seemed to agree, if only because their programming required them to. There was silence for a moment, and Charge Man kept thinking that he should say something encouraging, though he could think of nothing. The door opened, and in waltzed Crystal Bot, in her tall, modern form, very happy and unaffected by the moods of the others, which were darkened by the fact that very little about Crystal Man's armor had changed when it was installed on her. **

**"Hi everybody! I'm fixed now!" she joyfully announced. "I hate memory glitches, don't you? So irritating. I feel like I've lost half my memory data. But oh well, I haven't forgotten my friends. Hi, Wave Man!"**

**She smiled and waved at the water-bot before realizing that everyone was staring at her. "Uh, what? I'm fine now, really. No need to worry! Dad fixed me! Honestly, what's wrong with all of you? Don't be so gloomy!" she giggled. "And Star Man, what do you think you're hiding from? Silly!"**

**None of the rest of them were quite sure what to do. Finally Gravity Man stood up.**

**"Hey, Crystal..." he said a little oddly. "I...um, I just discovered some new information on tacheon particles. Want to come take a look?"**

**"OOH! Those things are so cool!" Crystal Bot excitedly clapped her hands. "I want to! Ooh! And tell me about gravity adapters too! Dad says you're really smart and you know everything about them! I want to know too!"**

There was a little more to the last memory, but Crystal Bot didn't watch it. This part she actually could remember. Gravity Man showed her his research, and he had been one of her principle teachers ever since. In fact, all of them had been wonderful. Star Man taught her about music and told her how to build her guitar. Charge Man and Napalm Man were always funny, and Gyro Man had even tried to teach her basic self-defense (it was then she found out about the Toad Man disease). Stone Man was sweet and told her stories about the other robot masters, and Wave Man had always watched out for her.

_"Except for when the robot masters captured me..." _she noted sadly.

But even then she didn't blame him. What could he have done?

She copied the disc's information to her hard drive using one processor, then took Roll's disc and started copying the information from that onto her second processor. That could always be watched later. With her third mental computer, she removed the guitar strapped on her back, and started to strum.

Crystal Bot was built to be a happy robot, so being sad for a prolonged period was starting to cause more glitches. She sighed, trying to think of something that could possibly cheer her up. Giggling, she remembered one tune that would do the trick. Playing a little more intently, strains of Okkusenman started to permeate the air, but since she didn't know all of the words, she didn't sing it. The song was no good slow and melodramatic, so Crystal Bot played it faster and louder, enjoying being a disturbance. Focusing on the notes as the song started to reach her favorite part, Crystal started to smile again, sticking out her tongue a little in concentration.

"OKKUSENMAN! OKKUSENMAN!"

A shriek and a loud thud drove a frightened Roll to the nearest window. As she stuck her head outside, she could hear spiteful laughter from above. Crystal Bot, on the ground below, was getting to her feet and looking upwards with annoyance.

"_Forte_! You scared me to death! You better hope my guitar's not broken!"

Roll looked up to see Bass standing on the edge of the roof and nearly doubling over with laughter. "Revenge is sweet, huh Crystal? Hahaha!"

Crystal Bot gave him an ugly look, but Roll could tell that she wasn't too upset about it. "Hey Bass!" Roll called out. "Is everyone else back yet?"

"No, not yet. They're so slow." Bass sneered as he jumped off the roof himself, landing near Crystal Bot, who he spoke to next. "Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, it's not that far of a fall."

"That's not what I meant." Bass frowned a little. "Auto didn't mess you up, did he?"

"Uh..." Crystal Bot did a quick check of her internal systems, as she didn't think to wonder if Auto had changed her in any way yet. "I seem to be the same. Though...oh joy, the three laws. How wonderful..." she said sourly, before staring down at the ground with timidity. "I'm so sorry, Forte-kun. I can't believe I stole Treble! And I hit you with that stupid energy and I went after Mega Man and I wanted to kill you! I'm so horrible!"

"Shut up already, will you?" Bass answered, annoyed. "I don't care about any of that. I know it wasn't you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Wily's an evil idiot. But we don't have to worry about him anymore. He's in jail, and I'll make sure he stays in for good." Bass held something up that Crystal Bot hadn't noticed yet, a laser handgun. "Here, take this. I can't be around all the time, so you're going to have to learn to protect yourself."

Crystal Bot stared at the gun a moment, wondering if she would ever learn how to use it properly. "Um, thanks. Where did you get this?"

"A place." Bass answered cryptically. "Hopefully you'll at least be able to not suck too bad at fighting now."

Crystal looked up at the window again, and as she expected, Roll was gone, probably to prepare for the return of the others. Nonetheless, Crystal Bot decided it would be better to be cautious. "Forte-_shee_..." she indicated that she wanted to continue the conversation in korean. "Are you...are you sure you don't want to destroy Mega Man?"

Bass was starting to not like this conversation, but he answered in korean anyway. "Of course I'm not going to."

"But why?" Crystal Bot protested. "You're so much better than him!"

"Then why do I need to prove it? Listen, Crystal, the whole thing between me and Rock anyway was all just some stupid artificial conflict engineered by Wily just so he could prove that he was a better robotics scientist than Light. I'm not carrying out any more of Wily's ridiculous orders, especially not now when I'm free of him. Also...Rock doesn't fight for the same reasons I do. If he wanted me dead, he could have let Wily destroy me and been done with the whole conflict already. That would even line up with his directive. But he didn't. Rock doesn't deserve to die. I don't want to hear about this anymore, got it?"

"...Okay." Crystal Bot agreed quietly. What he said made perfect sense, though she certainly didn't like his conclusion.

As they went inside, Bass had to wonder why Crystal Bot wasn't coping as well as the others at leaving Dr. Wily. Surely she had to know how horrible he was. But thoughts, unbidden, came into his mind. Crystal had been closer to Wily than any other robot master, and because she had been specifically designed for working for Wily, a lot of his evil traits wouldn't seem quite so bad to her. Not only that, but her entire worldview had to change once she learned what about her creator and what Wily had done to him. She had a lot to process.

Bass cringed, not liking how his programming was operating now. How often was he going to keep noticing these things about people? But in any case, her being upset was starting to get on his nerves.

"Hey Crystal," Bass returned to using english. "I've got something that will cheer you up."

Crystal Bot looked at him curiously as they entered Light's main lab, where Auto was busily setting up, and Bass went over to a monitor, inserting a disc. The monitor adjusted for a moment, and then an image of Bass in a room full of technological rubble appeared on the screen. It was the final strike of his battle against Elec Man, and the disc had been the one he took from the camera. As Elec Man approached him, Bass suddenly jumped up and hit him with the heatshock, and the camera flashed with color and light as Elec Man fried.

"EEEEE!" Crystal Bot squealed and giggled. "Oh yay! So pretty! Ha! That's what you get, Elec Man! Loser!"

While Bass was glad that it cheered her up, he realized that her obnoxious squeal was almost as bad. Looking behind her, he noticed that Mega Man was approaching, and the blue bomber had cringed at the sight on the monitor.

"What's wrong with you?"

"He was my brother." Mega Man said sadly. "A long time ago, but still."

"Oh, you wouldn't like him now, Mega Man. He was a real butt!" Crystal Bot turned and added, before she realized that she was still a little nervous and wasn't sure what to think of Rock. But after a second, she suddenly had a thought. "Oh! Is Team 5 here?"

"Yeah, the Light Cruiser is -"

Running past him rather rudely, Crystal Bot headed for the hangar. "AAAH! I have to make sure they're alright! Why don't I have my tools with me?"

In the hangar, Teams 9 and 5 were departing the Light Cruiser, most of them in thankfully good condition. Galaxy Man was torn up, and Gyro Man was barely able to remain conscious, but they were the worst off out of all of them. Splash Woman, now present, was cringing at the sight of her broken tail and thinking of how convenient it had been that another water-bot had been present when she had been hurt. Plug Man took her over to the main repair station while Tornado Man and Gravity Man took the other two of the seriously injured. The others seemed to be alright.

"It would appear that they were more interested in escape than fighting us." Tornado Man observed as he lifted the broken Galaxy Man. "It was a good trick of them to distract us with the mechaniloids. Managed to get a good number of them down, at least."

"I just hope that Wave Man did his job right and made sure none of them got to that other island." Jewel Man responded grumpily, clutching his mostly torn off right arm.

"Wily-bots seem conditioned for getting away, if they imitate their creator." Tornado Man shrugged. "I think Bass was right and they just found somewhere else to run. It's not like they'd try to go anywhere we'd know about. Oh hey, shouldn't your little creation be up and running by now?"

"I barely assisted in making her." Jewel Man commented dully. "Just wherever Crystal Man needed an extra pair of hands. Ugh, I hope she didn't turn out as annoying as Bass. I think I'd shoot myself."

"Crystal Bot!" Wave Man noticed her entering the room first.

"Is everyone alright?" the nervous girl-bot responded, looking around to see where she could help. "Aah! Gyro Man! You're hurt!"

The propeller robot only smiled. "Oh, I'm fine. Geez, I just barely get done upgrading and here I am about to get stuck in an automatic machine again. I'd been a lot worse off if it weren't for your dad, though."

Crystal Bot giggled, starting to become proud of her lineage. She started to check Gyro Man to look at his specific injuries, but she caught sight of Jewel Man first. Looking up at him, she shyly approached.

"Hi..." she very childishly greeted him, nervous and hoping that he was nice. "Thanks...for saving me. And for helping make me in the first place. Um, I have to fix everybody now, but when I'm done, can you tell me about my dad?"

Jewel Man was surprised at how sweet she acted. He smiled and answered, "I'll tell you everything I know."

\\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- -_shee_ is a korean suffix that you add at the end of your friend's name when you greet them. It's informal, and only attaches when you use their first name (which actually comes last in Korea - ex. Choi Bongjin's family name is Choi, and his personal name is Bongjin). Notedly, this attachment is properly spelled -_ssi_, but in korean when you have an "s" next to an "i", you automatically get a "sh" sound. Gaelic has way more of that sort of thing in it.

- Yeah, Crystal Man stank at telling fortunes. Robots wouldn't really be any good at spiritual matters because they aren't spiritual at all, and they aren't capable of psychological creativity so they can't even pretend by using a person's background, like a cheap psychic would. At best Crystal Man would be able to do some fortune trickery, sort of like how horoscopes are so generic they could refer to most anybody. In my mind, Team 5 robots were experiments Wily did to try and make robots capable of more than people think. Star Man, for example, is Wily's attempt to make a robot that can appreciate art. Since that's not really possible (and Wily didn't really care enough to finish the task; fighter-bots were more important to him), all Star Man ended up with was being able to like opera, like it says on his Megaman and Bass data disc. Music is the only art that robots can comprehend, because it's basically different sounds in different patterns, and is the most mathematical of all arts. All that I do in this story is according to the robots' data on the Mega Man wiki.

- Ah, comin' towards the end of Okkusenman. Wow, it turned out so much more different than I planned. At one point I wanted Bass and Crystal to be singing karaoke together and annoy the crap out of Mega Man, but since I decided to be canon as possible, I couldn't work it in right. Heck, I had lots of ideas that ended up scrapped. Like I'd have teams of robots face each other in practice fights. Naturally Team 2 would beat everyone, but I think with proper strategy they could be taken down.


	13. Recovery

Dub was speedily crawling around the walls of the lab, using four of its craftily designed feet to cling to the glass of the windows, and the other four sprayed the windows, wiped them down, and squeegeed. The windows were perfectly clear and clean in about a tenth of the time it usually took, Mega Man observed as he passed by. And it was also convenient Roll's work could get done and she would be able to stay with Dr. Light longer. As well as things had gone with getting Dr. Wily in captivity, Mega Man had more time to worry about his creator. Already Dr. Light had been in the hospital longer than he should have.

Footsteps sounded behind him, and he turned to see Jewel Man.

"Hi!" Mega Man greeted him warmly. "I thought you had left already with the rest of your team."

"No, I figured I'd stay for a while and see what sort of robot Crystal has turned out to be." Jewel Man came, stood next to Mega Man and joined in watching Dub. "That, and I didn't want to leave Galaxy Man alone with Team 5. I don't trust them yet."

"They fought their own fellow Wily-bots." Mega Man pointed out. "What's not to trust?"

"They even said that the other teams treated them as inferior. It's a personal vendetta. That doesn't mean they're going to be on the side of good, now does it?"

"Well, their directives have been changed, and Wave Man can keep the others in control. He feels like he owes us at least destroying the other robot masters. In any case, we're going to have to start trusting them at some point." Mega Man optimistically explained. "All robots should be given a chance!"

Jewel Man nodded, shrugging. He observed Dub and smiled, glancing a little backwards. "I really don't have the right to be, but I'm really proud of Crystal. She's quite the technician."

A giggling sounded from behind him. "You saw me, didn't you?"

"Yes, but I still meant it." Jewel Man answered merrily, doubting that Crystal Bot had heard their conversation about her team. "And my arm feels wonderful, thank you. I think it's better now than it was before it was cut off."

Crystal Bot giggled even more, running up and grabbing her assistant creator's arm. "Jewel Man _Oppa_, are you coming with us to clear up the space station?"

"Well..." Jewel Man teased, feigning hesitation.

"Please! Please, please, please!"

"Hm...well, only if Rock can come too."

Crystal Bot scowled, ducking behind Jewel Man. "Ew, no! No Mega Mans allowed!"

Mega Man had to laugh. "It's okay. I have to go patroling and make sure Dr. Cain isn't doing anything. He's been too quiet since his invasion attempt, and he still has four robot masters left. Besides, I'm sure that there's enough of you going already."

The girl-bot giddily stuck her tongue out at Mega Man and pulled Jewel Man away to go to the main lab. Only two days had passed since the invasion of Skull Island, and the robot masters were still working on finding the robot masters that had escaped. It was very likely that they were all scattered. But without Wily, there was a limit to what they could do. Nonetheless, Team 5 was determined to get all of them, even if their aims were a bit selfish: they wanted to liberate Star Man's space station. To that aim, all eight of them, along with Jewel Man and a jolly Galaxy Man, were gathering into the main lab over a diagram of the orbiting platform.

"There's bound to be plenty of mechaniloids: jet mets, walkers, and the like." Star Man explained. "Though I can't be certain if there's any masters."

"Oh, there will be." Gyro Man confidently asserted. "I'll bet they can't stand it that Team 5 is finally more powerful than them. Team 2 must be there right now, just waiting for us!"

Wave Man's water gurgled with amusement. "Don't be too eager. For now let us focus on strategy. Gravity Man, what can you tell us?"

"Well, my gravity hold can deal with the walkers, but the trouble we have is that a lot of the mechaniloids there are designed to operate in low or no gravity. Star Man, Wave Man, and Galaxy Man will be the best at containing any strays that try to escape or retaliate at any other sattelites. I'll have to hack into the station's systems quickly so that we can be aware of their locations at all times. But I think that most likely they'll want to stay and fight so that they can try to keep the station."

Mega Man had followed Jewel Man and Crystal Bot into the lab while the planning was going on, though he had intended to just pass through on his way to retrieve Rush. However, something made him pause. Treble was sitting peacably near the door, alone. He growled a bit at the blue bomber, but otherwise seemed uninterested in moving. Jewel Man, ever observant of any potential threat, noticed as well, and he approached.

"We're going to have to trust _him_ eventually too, huh?" Jewel Man snarkily remarked. "Where in the world would he go?"

"Uh, I don't know...but if Bass left Treble, he can't be far away, he going to come back, and he's..._maybe _not causing trouble?"

About then, Rock noticed Crystal Bot sending out a transmission, only lightly coded to keep any authorities from being alarmed. Mega Man decoded it easily, as it was a part of his programming to quickly decifer any standard radio signals.

_"- Forte-kun, we're going to get Star Man's station back and blow stuff up in space! Want to come with us? -"_

_"- No, I'm busy. -"_

_"- Aw, come on! It'll be fun! -"_

_"- I __**said **__I'm busy! You can go 'blow stuff up' with everybody else. -"_

_"- ...Okay. -"_

_"- Well, don't cry about it. You can take Treble along. -"_

_"- Really? -"_

_"- Yeah, he's bound to get bored sitting around all day. And one more thing. Don't you dare get hurt, or you're in trouble. -"_

Crystal Bot giggled aloud. _"- I'll be careful. But what are you doing? -"_

_"- Things. Now leave me alone. -"_

Crystal Bot obediently shut down the transmission, still giggling as she waved the purple, metal wolf over to her. Treble looked up and wagged his tail. The transmission hadn't been long, but Mega Man was still able to trace it. It was coming from the hospital. Wondering what Bass could possibly be doing there, Mega Man decided to take a detour before going on patrol. He teleported just outside of the hospital, as it recently became an electronically enforced non-teleportation area, and went inside. As he approached Dr. Light's room, an upset Roll came to meet him.

"Thank God you're here!" Roll seethed in frustration. "You've got to get him out of here!"

"What's going on?"

"Bass has been nothing but a nuisance all day! Dr. Light can't get any rest whatsoever! And just an hour ago I catch him trying to bring the doctor Chinese take-out! Chinese! Do you have any _clue_ how greasy that is? I thought I caught him, but it turns out he bought an extra just to trick me! And he won't stop calling me 'dictator Roll'! He's even saying that he's going to let Dr. Light see Dr. Wily's research while he's still in the hospital! Dr. Light isn't getting any rest!"

"Wait, what?" Mega Man was confused. "He's with Dr. Light now? Why?"

"I don't know! Just make him leave!"

The blue robot wasn't sure what to make of that, but he approached the door and listened. Through the small window he could see them, and they were playing chess on a side table that someone had moved into the room. Dr. Light was fairly active, sitting up in the hospital bed as he waited for Bass to make his next move. The tall robot uncertainly placed his bishop at a new place on the board.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Dr. Light asked mischeviously.

"Don't do that." Bass objected. "I made the move already."

"So you're sure?"

"I took my hand off the piece, didn't I?"

Dr. Light promptly took his queen and moved it across the board. "Checkmate."

Bass stared at the board. "No...I've got to have another move."

"You don't."

The black and gold robot paused as he looked to see if the gleeful doctor was right, and sure enough, any move the black king could make would only result in its doom.

"How can you do that? I'm a computer! Nobody can beat computers..."

"You need to take more time and think your methods through." Dr. Light advised. "And there are times when you can't make a move without losing a piece. Just be aware of all your options."

"I should know all this. It's not that different from actual fighting, in a way. One more time. I think I can at least last a little longer."

Mega Man decided that he might as well go in. As he entered the room, Bass frowned slightly, but Dr. Light continued to smile, glad to see his most heroic creation.

"Good morning, Rock." Thomas greeted his creation warmly in his slightly wheezing voice. "What brings you here?"

"I just wanted to drop in before I went to look for any sign of Dr. Cain." Mega Man lied. "He's bound to show up now that Wily's out of the way. Bass, did you want to come?"

"Ugh, no. I can't be seen in public with a dweeb like you." Bass scornfully declined. "Besides, someone has to take care of your pet scientist. His brain'll shrivel up from being in here. Roll sent you in to try to make me leave, didn't she?"

"You caught me." Mega Man shrugged with cheerful indifference. "I tried."

"That was trying?" Bass snorted. "Go tell the dictator that she needs better lackeys."

"Bass, please try to get along with Roll." Dr. Light protested gently. "She's only trying to help."

"Yeah, well, she can go back to the lab and help there." A look from Dr. Light made him change his tune, at least a little. "Alright, I'll be good. Roll knows all that medical stuff."

Bass started picking up some of the chess pieces lying on the side of the table and started putting them back into place. "Okay, old man, one more time. This game I'm giving you a run for your money."

"I'll let you guys get to it then." Mega Man headed for the door, signalling for Rush to teleport to just outside the hospital. "I'll see you later."

Dr. Light smiled and waved, and Bass flung his hand back in a gesture that could possibly be interpreted as either a half hearted wave goodbye or an emphatic nonverbal demand to get out of sight. Mega Man didn't care to figure out which, so he just left, only to find an agitated Roll on the other side of the door. He just smiled sheepishly as she sighed with exasperation.

"Rock..."

"No, Roll," Mega Man stopped her. "Look at them."

From the window they could see the next game starting. Dr. Light was starting to tell the story of how he had met a medical doctor, Dr. Johnson, who had survived the explosion of an emergency generator when lightning hit it, according to that doctor's account. It was a story that Rock and Roll had both heard several times, though Bass wouldn't have. As the tale went on, Bass grew more and more skeptical.

"No, no way, Light." Bass objected. "I've shot plenty of generators. There's no way any explosion could have been _that _big. Johnson's a total liar."

"Oh no, he's not like that."

"Well, he lies about generators at least."

"Come on now, he's a marine biologist, and you're a fighter-bot. I'm sure his definition of 'huge explosion' is bound to be less impressive than yours."

"Okay, maybe, but a generator still is pretty pathetic as an explosive. Those things are designed to be safe. I'm telling you, that guy was a liar."

Roll backed away from the door, not interested in the conversation. "What am I supposed to be seeing?"

"Don't you get it?" Rock asked. "Bass is actually spending time with Dr. Light, because he's nicer than Dr. Wily ever could be. Maybe robots aren't like humans, but creators, they sort of are like parents. I think Bass wants to be around someone who doesn't think of him as a failure, but sees his better side. It's good for him. It's also good for Dr. Light. Look at him. He hasn't been so lively since he's got to the hospital. It renews his hope for life to see a robot like Bass turn away from violence."

"I...I guess. But I'm still going to kick Bass out after he's done with that game...if I can." Roll folded her arms stubbornly. "I'll have to convince Dr. Light that he actually needs some rest, but he can make Bass go."

Mega Man shook his head with amusement. "I've got to go, but you have fun."

"Grr...how can I?"

-t-

It was turning out to be a lovely sunny day in Monstropolis, California, and the brightness of the day certainly matched Mega Man's mood as he returned from another day of fighting crime. Finally the time had come: Dr. Light was coming home. Mega Man and Rush flew back to the lab with excitement, knowing that in just a short while Roll would be returning with the doctor.

Megaman lowered into the hangar's hatch, and he stepped off of Rush as the dog converted into normal mode. He went over into the lounge, a spacious room with long, plush sofas and huge windows that displayed the yard and woods outside, as it on the side of the house facing away from the city. There were four occupants already: Bass, who was calmly and yet disinterestedly reading one of the books from a side bookcase; Gravity Man and Jewel Man, who were excitedly discussing various technology matters with a hyperactive and constantly giggling Crystal Bot.

"The doctor's not here yet, then?" Mega Man said as he and Rush came into the room.

"Actually he _is _here, Rock." Bass sarcastically remarked as he put down his reading material. "He's just invisible."

Mega Man rolled his eyes, choosing not to let Bass bother him.

"Forte-kun," Crystal Bot asked. "Why do you call him Rock?"

"Because that's his name. Duh. Didn't you know?"

"Well, I've heard him called that, but I thought his real name was Mega Man."

"That's just a title." Mega Man explained. "Rock is the name Dr. Light built me with. When I became a fighter-bot, I took on the title of 'Mega Man'."

"Why do you think the next model was called Mega Man X?" Bass added, wondering how Crystal Bot didn't know that before.

"Oh, okay. So then why do _you _have two names?"

"I have no idea." Bass paused a moment. "You want an alternate name too, don't you?"

"Well, yeah!" Crystal Bot folded her arms. "It's not fair that my name is exactly what I am."

"We could just call you Crystal." Jewel Man casually suggested. "It is a girl's name."

"Boo! That's too human and too obvious." she stuck her tongue out teasingly.

"What are you looking for, exactly?" Gravity Man asked. "I'm sure we can think of something if you know what you like."

"Definitely something musical. But it has to be something cool and impressive. And cute! Very cute! Oh I know! Destra, or maybe Sinistra. Ooh, Sinistra sounds really good. Hm, but Destra...so hard to choose..."

"What are you, a supervillian?" Jewel Man shook his head. "Maybe...I don't know...Trill, Acoustic...ugh, I stink at this."

Gravity Man shrugged. "All I can think of is Aria, Harmony, Arietta..."

"Ossia." Rock suddenly piped up. "It's sort of tough sounding, I think, if that's what you're looking for."

"Ossia?" Crystal Bot pondered. "Hm...maybe..."

Bass suddenly realized that he didn't like Mega Man choosing a name for his mechanic. He had been thinking about it for a while, and he liked his idea, so he decided that Crystal Bot was going to stick with it whether she liked it or not.

"Sonata."

"What?"

"Your name is Sonata." Bass firmly asserted. "And that's that."

"What?" Crystal Bot's brow furrowed. "Who says you can name me, especially without my approval? Besides, 'Sonata'? How boring is that!"

"Actually, I think it's nice." Gravity Man said. "It's not too fancy or obscure, but not that common either."

"He's right, you should take that one." Megaman agreed. "It's pretty cute."

"Hey! Since when do you agree with anything Forte says? Not fair! Jewel Man, tell him!"

"Sorry," the bedazzling robot couldn't help a little smirk, a little amused at Crystal Bot's reaction. "As much as I can't stand to admit it, that's a really good name. Fitting, for you."

"LAME! It's so not cute! Sinistra is so much better!"

"Four to one, you're outnumbered." Bass affirmed, standing up and pointing stubbornly at the girl-bot. "Deal with it, Sonata."

Crystal Bot started to protest, but a sudden transmission from Roll caused her to stop her complaining.

_"- Hey, everyone, we're on Laramie St. just around the corner, so we'll be there soon! -"_

That changed the tone of the room entirely. Mega Man and Jewel Man brightened considerably, and even Bass had to smile. Gravity Man and Crystal Bot were very excited to meet the creator of modern robotics. Crystal even squealed, though she was obviously nervous.

"Doesn't Team 5 want to be here?" Jewel Man asked Gravity Man.

"Roll gave us this lecture about not too many of us being around while Dr. Light is still recovering." the research-bot explained. "And Wave Man believed it best that those of us who are the most knowledgable about science would appreciate meeting Dr. Light the most. I can't wait! To meet the greatest living mind...amazing!"

"Is he nice?" Crystal Bot asked.

"Are you kidding?" Bass answered. "He's nice to a fault."

It wasn't long before the door opened, and Roll walked in first, her eyes cautiously watching the doctor as he made his way inside. Dr. Light's arm steadily and pleasantly entered, looking much healthier than before, yet still wobbling a bit. His hand tightly gripped a black cane tightly as he walked in, one of the unresistable signs of his age. But his eyes were lively, if a bit faded, and his hair looked only a bit thinner than it had been over the years. Despite his many wrinkles, it was clear that his recovery had been a good one. But Roll took no chances.

"Please sit down, Doctor." she pleaded gently, knowing that the doctor had the habit of trying to do more than he should.

"Alright." Dr. Light complied cheerfully, if only to keep his caretaker from worrying.

"How are you feeling?" Megaman asked.

"Much better, thank you. Roll has been taking very good care of me, and the company was very interesting, to say the least. I'm very glad to have you with us, Bass."

As he spoke the last part of that comment, he looked toward the dark robot, who only smiled sheepishly and rolled his eyes. He was unused to receiving compliments, especially when it came to matters of kindness.

"And who is this? Gravity Man, I presume?"

The maroon bot smiled with excitement. "You recognise me?"

"Of course. Rock always used to say how much fun it was to fight against you."

Gravity Man turned and scowled at Mega Man, annoyed that Dr. Light's first impression of him was how he was a terrible fighter. Mega Man just shrugged apologetically, while the other robots tried not to laugh. But turning back to Dr. Light, he tried to adjust the genius' view.

"Um, well, I was in charge of research, and I can't tell you how excited I am that I finally get to meet you. I have so many ideas I want to tell you about, especially when it comes to artificial gravity in zero-G environments. I was wondering if you would take a look at what I've done and see if it's any good."

"Certainly!" Dr. Light replied. "I always have time for scientific endeavors. And I was looking at some of your research on tacheon particles while I was in the hospital, and I'm very impressed. Perhaps you didn't realize it, but I think you've found a way to finally be able to measure tacheons and confirm their existence once and for all."

"What, really?"

"Oh yes! It's going to need a bit of time and work, but I think it can be done. And that reminds me, there's another robot scientist in the room, and a bit of a trickster, at that." Looking past Gravity Man, the scientist referred to Crystal Bot. "Please, come out where I can see you."

Crystal Bot, however, was reluctant. Ever since she had first seen him enter the room, she had quieted, and now she was even more nervous that he had called her out. She had been hoping that with all the other robots around, Dr. Light would be too distracted to notice her, at least for a while. But summoning up what courage she had, Crystal shyly stepped forward.

"Um, hi...sir. I'm, uh...sorry for stealing your stuff..."

Dr. Light laughed a little, wheezing a bit as he did. "No need to worry about any of that now. I'll only consider those investments into science. Bass was telling me that you designed a new armor form, and I must say I'm very impressed. It's surprisingly creative work for a robot. But I must admit, I'm a little worried about those Megaman X parts in your mind."

Crystal backed away, expecting the worst. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to take them! And please don't hurt Jewel Man either, it's not his fault!"

"Oh no, I'm not going to disassemble you." Dr. Light reassured her. "It's just that you may have some errors in your personality AI. X was designed with a greater emotional range and the ability to handle it. Given that you're mostly a first-generation robot, I'm concerned about the difference in technologies. Potentially it's serious, but in your case I doubt it will be too troublesome, considering how long you've been active. Still, I'm going to want to take a look at your processors. Stable doesn't mean safe."

The girl-bot smiled a bit, managing a quiet, "Thank you" before timidly backing away.

The conversation turned its attention back to Gravity Man, who had wanted to show Dr. Light what Dr. Wily had been working on before he had been captured. They were trying to figure out what the last of the robot masters would try to do, and if they had the ability to get Wily out of jail. Mega Man paid attention, but Crystal Bot's behavior bothered him. He looked over, noticing that as Dr. Light activated a monitor in the wall so that they could look at the data recovered from Skull Castle, an upset Crystal Bot quickly went for the door, trying to make as little noise as possible. Before she disappeared behind the door, she looked once more at Dr. Light. Immediately she ran off, not even bothering to shut the door completely.

"Where is she going?" Mega Man elbowed Bass to see if he knew. "She looks upset."

"What? She's gone?" Bass groaned. "She's causing trouble, most likely. Ugh, I'll go get her."

Bass left the lounge, grumpily searching the labs. He expected that Crystal Bot was somewhere trying to steal more of Dr. Light's data, now that she had the access. But as he passed through one of the repair stations, he noticed a bit of light being reflected on the floor. Turning around to see where it came from, Bass saw Crystal huddled under one of the tables, hugging her knees to herself, shuddering a little. Hearing his footsteps, Crystal Bot looked up at him before almost immediately lowering her head again in annoyance and shame.

"Go away."

"No. Now get out from under there."

"_No_!"

Grimacing, Bass approached, crouching down on the floor in front of her. "What's wrong with you?"

"I said go away!"

"And I said no. Now tell me what's going on in that screwed up head of yours."

Crystal Bot hesitated, peeking up at him for just a moment. From Bass's grim expression she figured that there was nothing she could do to make him just leave, so she whined a little before finally speaking.

"I...I can't fix him!"

"Fix who?"

"Dr. Light..." Crystal Bot sounded as if she wanted to cry. "He's all old and stuff, and all wrinkly and pale...I can't fix him! I don't know how! And he's so nice! Wily would've blown me up in a second if I stole from him, but Light says he's going to fix me when he should be really, really mad at me! And he so nice to you and to Gravity Man...it's just so not fair that he has to die!"

She shuddered and glitched. Looking up again at Bass, she noticed that he wasn't angry at her. In fact, he seemed amused. Still a little irritated, but she could tell from his contorted expression that he was trying not to show that he thought her explanation was funny.

"Don't laugh at me!" Crystal Bot complained, pouting stubbornly.

"You care way too much." Bass shook his head. "Look, if you throw a fit everytime someone dies, you'd never get out from under the table. And yes, Dr. Light is sort of disgusting now, but he's also cool and you running out like that is rude. You were so excited to meet him today that you were giggling like a twelve year old on crack, and only now you remember that he doesn't have long to live? You were the one who first told everyone about it. So you're going to suck it up, get back in there, and be polite."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes. They're still talking, so maybe your little episode went unnoticed. Now come on."

Bass took her hand and pulled her out from under the table. Together they went back to the lounge, Crystal Bot still embarrassed and aprehensive. Jewel Man, Gravity Man, Mega Man, and Dr. Light were still gathered around the monitor, just as Bass had suspected. Out of the group, only Rock and Roll had seemed to notice them returning. Mega Man said nothing, but Roll approached them.

"Hey, where did you guys go?" The girl-bot in red asked.

"Nowhere." Bass frowned at Crystal Bot as he answered. "Sonata's just unsociable and needs to learn manners."

"Don't call me that." Crystal Bot objected. "I never agreed on that being my alternate name."

"What, why don't you like 'Sonata'?" Roll asked. "Aw, you should use that for a name. Then I could call you Sona-chan."

Crystal considered this for a moment. "Sona-chan? Dang it, that _is_ cute. Okay, fine, Sonata works."

\\\\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Tacheon particles are most well known from Star Trek, sort of as a universal "do whatever you want" particle that allows the starship Enterprise to do just that. However, in real life tacheons have been known to appear during experiments with radioactive materials, but they have a ridiculously short half-life, so they're barely around long enough to detect. Scientists aren't even convinced that they're real, and nobody knows what they do.

- It took practically forever for me to actually put it into the plot, but props to Tylterra for coming up with Crystal Bot's musical name. Technically it wasn't one of the suggestions but I really liked how it sounded. And I'm really impressed with how many musical terms she actually knows. Tylterra gets a cookie. I loved all of the suggestions, as they were all very interesting, and thanks to those that gave them.

- When I was in China (that's where I was when I was on a break a few chapters back), someone told me that Chinese generally is greasy, and that's why they drink so much tea, to cleanse their systems. I dunno, it didn't seem too greasy over there, but Asians do a lot of stir-fryish stuff, so maybe it's true. Heck, I liked it. If you ever go to China, get the rosebud tea. It's so good. Jasmine and oolong are also good.


	14. Pieces of Science

It was a very calm day. Dr. Light was in the lab with Auto and Gravity Man, finding out how much more efficient it was in his lab when he had so much help. Mega Man had just returned with the remains of Magnet Man, who he had destroyed. Hopefully the lab would be able to discover the location of more robot masters. Over the past week, both Mega Man and Bass had been hunting down those that remained (and it bothered them that Team 2 was so elusive). But today, Bass had been quiet, and he didn't leave the lab.

"Okay, so what do I do now?" Roll asked Crystal Bot, who had taken a break from the lab to show Roll some of the extra features of Dub in a large, empty storage room.

"Push this button on the side." Crystal said with a giggle. "It's so cool, Roll-chan, you'll love it!"

"Sona-chan, mind telling me what this button actually does before I push it?"

"Yes, I do mind. Push it, push it!"

Roll giggled, only slightly worried that she would blow up. But she went ahead and pushed a button on the top side of Dub. Immediately four of his arms went out and wrapped themselves firmly across her torso. The other four arms extended themselves as far as they could go, then bent and attached to each other in the middle, then spread out perpendicularly in all four directions. Once they had flattened, it was clear that Roll now had her own personal helicopter pack. She flew lifted into the air as Dub's blade-arms spun, and she was surprised at how easy it was to control where she went.

"Oh wow!" the housekeeper exclaimed. "This is awesome!"

Crystal Bot giggled from the ground. "Just make sure you land before you press the button again!"

"What, do you think I'm stupid?" Roll teasingly kicked her shoe at Crystal, though it landed several feet off. "But I guess I better try to test land."

Roll returned to the ground, and waited to push the button just as her friend had advised. Dub's legs released her and retracted, then obediently went to retreive the missing shoe.

"Roll-chan," Crystal began in a more serious tone. "I didn't put any weapons or anything on Dub in the first place because he was supposed to be a trick, but Auto really should install some battle AI and lasers on it. Since you don't fight, it would be really good if you had some protection."

"Yeah...I, uh, I guess you're right." Roll reluctantly admitted. "I don't like it though."

_"- Roll! How do I open the hangar port? -"_ A transmission from Bass interrupted. _"- We have a visitor -"_

_"- I'll be there in a second! Does Dr. Light know? -"_

_"- No. I'm an idiot that doesn't know anything about security. Of course he knows! -"_

Crystal Bot, who could also hear the transmissions, giggled, but Roll scowled. She was starting to get sick of Bass's attitude. But she and Crystal went to the hangar anyway, where they found not only Bass, but Mega Man as well, who was helping open the hangar bay doors. Jewel Man and Wave Man were there also, though the rest of Team 5 was currently on the space station, getting it into running order to become their base of operations. Only Charge Man remained, who had come down to bring up some supplies for the station but was now curiously awaiting with the others for the arrival of the visitor.

The large panels in the roof drew back, and a relatively small helicopter settled down, its blades slowing as it landed. The massive winds it created slowed and stopped, and the passenger door opened first. A dark eyed figure stepped imposingly down to the gathering of robots; it was Pharoah Man. He looked around the room solemnly before turning back to look at the other departing passenger, Dr. Cossack, who himself seemed fairly old. His red hair was starting to get strands of silver in it, though fortunately his hairline seemed unreceded.

As the Russian doctor departed from the vessel, Pharoah Man turned back to the other robots and started looking around the room. He stopped when he saw Bass, then approached to speak to him. Bass didn't seem to be happy about talking to the Egyptian based robot, but in any case, they departed to a quiet corner. Bass glared at a curious Jewel Man, who was eyeing them with suspicion.

"Good morning, Mega Man." Dr. Cossack greeted warmly in his thick accent. "It has been a while, hasn't it?"

"Wow, it really has. It's good to see you again."

The doors behind the robots opened, and out came Dr. Light, still leaning on a cane, but otherwise fine. "Ah, Dr. Cossack. I'm very glad to see you."

The doctors shook hands. "You seem to be doing very well. We were all worried for a time."

"Ah, think nothing of it. How is the family?"

Dr. Cossack laughed and shook his head. "I still refuse to acknowledge that Kalinka is an adult. She's growing up far too fast, and next year she's going to university. It's as if she's trying to leave me as soon as she can."

"I know you have to leave soon for Moscow to keep your appointments, but do you have time for a drink?" Dr. Light offered.

"Always, good friend."

The doctors headed off further into the lab, and Roll followed immediately, insisting that Dr. Light keep his non-alcoholic, or at least just one. As the doctors exited, Pharoah Man returned to the other robots, speaking to Mega Man.

"I see you have survived the many tricks of Dr. Cain."

"Bass took care of most of what happened." Mega Man admitted. "And there wasn't too much of that. But there are still four robot masters out there, and so is Cain. He hasn't so much as moved a muscle since his would-be invasion was foiled, so he's got to be planning something big. But we'll definitely be ready! Right, Bass?"

"Yeah, I'm sure you can handle it."

The blue bomber stared at his taller counterpart. "Wait, you're not helping?"

"Are you kidding? I _did_ help. It's all yours now. Get Team 5 if you want backup." Bass folded his arms. "Besides, I have business in Russia, so I'm going back with Cossack."

"Business?" Jewel Man lifted an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Business. None of yours." Bass gave a sinister frown.

"Do not let him mislead you." Pharaoh Man put in. "His business is merely checking for any last tricks of Wily in our country."

"Is there really anything there?" Charge Man asked.

"Who knows?" Bass answered. "But with Wily you can't take risks. And he was still pissed off about Team 4's failure well after he built me, so he holds long grudges."

"Good luck, Bass." Wave Man said. "Hopefully with that and the destruction of the remaining robot masters, we'll be able to finally end Wily's influence."

"You seem pretty willing go against your creator." Jewel Man noted curiously.

"Well yes, most robots have little attachment to their creator, unless they are directly programmed for loyalty or their personality AI is socially inclined." Wave Man eyes softened slightly as he glanced momentarily at Crystal Bot. "And Wily was a harsh master. Without his loyalty failsafes...I see no reason to feel obliged toward him."

Mega Man was disappointed at what was going on. Bass was the only robot with power comparable to his own, and the fight against the last four robot masters would be a lot quicker with Bass' assistance. But he knew that what Bass' logic was reasonable, so he didn't question it. "Are you sure you'll be able to find whatever Wily may have up there?"

"Eh, he generally makes his work pretty obvious. I just have to find whatever looks like a skull. And I wasn't going to hang out here with you losers anyway." The dark robot scoffed.

Crystal Bot pouted. "I am _not _a loser! I'm a technical genius!"

"Yeah, which why you're coming with me. Get your stuff."

Crystal's mood turned around instantly. "Really?" she squealed, but then a moment later she stopped and the corners of her mouth turned downwards. "Wait, you're not just making fun of me, are you?"

"I'm not. This armor...well it doesn't suck. You're...innovative." Bass was clearly having a hard time saying anything good about anyone other than himself. It wasn't something he did often. "And I'd like it if you kept those ideas coming. So get your stuff."

"Yay!" Crystal Bot exclaimed, starting to power up one of her minds to come up with more upgrade ideas. "I get to work for the coolest robot ever!"

"What a minute!" Jewel Man immediately protested to Bass. "You can't just make plans and expect people to follow them!"

Bass merely rolled his eyes. "See, Sonata, this is exactly why I didn't tell you til now. Jewel Man would hear about it and not shut up for a second."

"Hey!" Charge Man complained unhappily. "We're Team 5 for life! You can't split us up like Team 9! They suck! Come on, Crystal, stay with us! We need you for the space station!"

"No you don't," Bass argued, as he was beginning to see that their points of view were beginning to sway Crystal Bot. "Gravity Man is a tech-bot now, so he can take care of it. And Auto will probably help."

"That's not even the point." Jewel Man snapped. "She's not safe working for a fighter-bot. There's no telling what you'll get her into. I don't even believe for a second that you'd send her back after you found whatever mysterious Wily thing you're looking for, however long _that _ends up taking. And Crystal, I don't want you to go. You're much safer in a lab."

"Alright, stop it, you guys." Mega Man tried to rationalize with them. "This isn't your choice. Crystal, what is it _you _want to do?"

The girl-bot thought about it a moment. She looked at the robots one by one, and she couldn't help but stick out her lower lip in consternation as she saw Charge Man's pitiful face. But as she wrung her hands one last time, a grin tried to creep its way onto her face, and she slowly turned to Jewel Man.

"Um, thing is, I've already thought of four different ways...no, five...ooh, five and a half! Um, five and a half ways to improve Forte-kun's weapon systems. So um...yeah. Sorry." Crystal Bot couldn't help a small giggle. "Oh please Wave Man, please approve! And Charge, you know I'll be able to set up comm easily, even to the space station, so you'll always be able to talk to me. And I'll visit! Oh Wave Man, please say I can go!"

Wave Man would have smiled, if he had a mouth. "I already approved it. Bass asked me earlier, and I said that you would be allowed only if you desired to go."

"WHAT?" Jewel Man exclaimed. "You're letting her go with that guy?"

"Yes. I am her team leader, so I have the authority to approve her departure." Wave Man said in a terse, final tone, hoping to put an end to the debate and make Jewel Man aware that he had no say in Team 5 matters. "Though you should know, Crystal, that I will recall you should it ever become necessary."

Charge Man was sad, but he didn't want to question Wave Man's decision. "Crystal Bot...we'll miss you."

"Aw, I'll miss you too. But it's not like you'll never see me again."

"Sonata." Bass firmly reminded her of what they were doing. "There isn't that much time. Get your stuff."

"Oh yeah!"

Crystal Bot started to run off, but paused a moment as she realized that she owned very little. Giggling as she mused over the convenience of the situation, she ran off and went to go get her guitar, as her tools had already been returned to their rightful places under her armor. Bruce was sure to be around somewhere as well, so she signalled for the little bird to find her.

Bass hadn't been lying; Dr. Cossack did need to leave soon. It was hardly fifteen minutes before the two doctors came back into the hangar, and as they were saying their goodbyes, Crystal Bot ran in with Bruce flying over her shoulder and the crystal axe strapped over her back. Team 5 had returned from the space station to say goodbye to their crystalline friend.

"Aw," Stone Man complained. "We won't be the same without you. And there'll only be seven of us."

"Well, we could always recruit this guy." Napalm Man slapped Jewel Man's back, who cringed a little at its force. "We're in need of a shiny, after all!"

Seeing Star Man's demure expression, Wave Man chortled but decided against it. "We already have a shield robot, Napalm Man."

"Um, eh, thanks for the invitation, anyway." Jewel Man nervously stepped away from the purple torpedo-bot. "But I think maybe I should stick with Team 9."

"Good luck, Bass!" Mega Man cheerfully encouraged the dark robot. "I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of Wily's schemes!"

"Don't let that Cain guy kill you, or I'll have to shoot myself." Bass wished the bomber luck in his own way. "If some lame guy like that beats you...then you must be malfunctioning."

Rock had to laugh. "I'm sure Auto wouldn't let that happen."

"Pharoah Man, hi." Crystal Bot approached the noble curiously. "How do we get to Russia? We can't do it in a helicopter."

"Certainly not. However, I have a specially prepared jet that will be large enough to carry all of us, as well as the helicopter. It should only take us 15 hours to arrive in Moscow, unless there is a delay for weather."

This seemed distressing to Crystal Bot. Her mouth twisted to the side in annoyance. "So um, is there a lab or something on the jet? Without science, it'll be boring."

This made Pharoah Man chortle with amusement. "No, experiments on a plane would hardly be stable."

"Um, I guess so. Yeah, if something exploded, that would be pretty dangerous...I guess...Ooh, I could think of ways to make a bomb-proof plane. That'll be fun." Crystal Bot giddily hopped at the thought.

"Science does not always equate to explosions." Pharoah Man pointed out. "Nor are they helpful, generally."

Crystal Bot stared at him oddly, then broke out into a grin, pointing with accusation at Pharoah Man. "BLASPHEMY! What nonsense do ye speak of, you heretic! You are hereby excommunicated from the Church of Science!"

"That hardly-" he tried to speak.

"EXCOMMUNICATED!"

Crystal Bot yelled, disturbing the others in the hangar and causing Bass to facepalm and wonder if he had made the right decision to bring her along. Pharoah Man, however, was unpeturbed and seemed to appreciate the joke, just shaking his head as Crystal Bot giggled uncontrollably.

"Dr. Cossack," Pharoah Man intoned in his imposing voice as he then turned to his master. "It's time we departed if we are to return to Moscow when we are expected."

"Right, right." Dr. Cossack turned to Bass and Crystal Bot. "Are you ready?"

Bass glanced sidelong at Crystal Bot, who merrily gave a thumbs up. "Yeah, we're good." he responded.

"Then let's go."

Crystal Bot ran around and gave her team a quick hug before going to the center of the hangar. The doctors shook hands one final time, and as Megaman went to go shake hands with his dark rival, Bass smacked the blue bomber upside the head in a more or less friendly manner.

"Don't get her killed!" Jewel Man called out his final advice.

Bass only rolled his eyes. "Shut up and worry about being killed yourself!"

"Bye Sona-Chan!" Roll waved one last time as the four headed out for the center of the hangar. "Be safe!"

"Bye, Roll-Chan! Oh hey! Remember to practice Dub's helicopter mode! And get some guns on that thing!"

"Farewell, Bass!" Dr. Light cheerfully waved. "I'll miss having you around!"

Bass said nothing, but he smiled and waved back, knowing that Dr. Light was probably the only person he'd miss.

The helicopter wasn't strong enough to hold Dr. Cossack and three robots, so the two ex-Wily-bots would be riding on Treble. Bass stepped onto Treble jet first, then held out his arm for his technician. Crystal Bot took his arm, and he lifted her behind him onto the mechanical dog. She waved goodbye to her team as the Russian doctor and his Egyptian creation loaded into the helicopter, and little Bruce hopped on the orb that made up Crystal's left shoulder. The hangar doors reopened, and the helicopter and dog lifted into the air. Soon Dr. Light's public laboratory was small and far behind.

"Forte-kun?"

"What?"

"You know where the airport is, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Hehe...think we can get there before the helicopter does?"

Bass grinned. He was always up for a competition. "It'll be easy. Right, Treble?"

The dog barked his compliance, also glad for a challenge. Crystal Bot pulled open the back of her hood and let Bruce hop in, to make sure that he would be able stay with them. She put her arms around Bass' waist and held tight as he gave Treble one last command, and they went shooting off in the distance.

- 21XX -

"Doctor...Doctor Inafune?"

A tall black-armored reploid with short, spiky black hair wandered the halls of the still incomplete Inafune Institute. Red and orange markings colored his armor, including a quirky logo of a wrench and wren that had been designed by his rather eccentric boss. He was suitable for some technical work, but generally Casper was a guardian of the laboratory, and it was his first day of guarding the new lab. Not that he was particularly worried about a Maverick attack, but in case anyone was too curious about the goings-on, he would be ready.

Mechaniloids were still putting the insulation into the walls, but fortunately the beams were all set up for the beginnings of the second floor. Though the work had been going on for months, things had slowed down considerably for the construction of the laboratory ever since the first real construction had begun. Even now, only the basement labs were up and running, and they were only almost as finished as Dr. Inafune needed for her work. This annoyed Casper, and it almost made him wish that Dr. Reiko Inafune hadn't made her discovery, which had delayed the work considerably. But he smiled to himself. The discovery had been far too interesting, and he knew how much the doctor would get captivated by the slightest unique concept.

Casper descended the stairs into the underground labs. "Doctor?"

"I'm down here, Casper! You should know that my butt is planted always right next to my latest project!"

The reploid shook his head, wishing that Doctor Inafune would be more professional. But he went into the messy room, filled with cords and tools and wires in no order of any sort. On the two tables that weren't covered in junk were the two very things that many people would consider junk. Coming around to get a better view, Casper approached a short but vivacious Inafune, whose short black hair was tied back into a tiny ponytail as she scribbled notes hurriedly in a notebook.

But that wasn't what caught his attention. Instead he saw two very old robots, both tinged with rust. One of them was fairly tall, and painted black with what must have previously been gold accent marks. From what Casper had known of oldstyle paint types, the metal chosen had a tendency to fade over time into a sour yellow, if explosed to certain things in a given environment. The next robot was a brightly clothed green and cyan girl-bot, with orbs that had become shiny once more, since they had been cleaned by the mechaniloids.

"This is your discovery?" Casper asked, with doubt and yet also some amazement. "What are they?"

"These here are oldstyle robots, of course. The male is SWN-001 and the female is CMN-040. That's about as much as I can determine for their identities for the time being." the human scientist answered. "For right now I want to observe them as much as I can without tampering with their computer minds...at least not until I get my observation computer up and running at 100%. No sense in risking it on my business computer! All I know for certain right now is that they were complex robots - not mechaniloids - and that they have different creators. This one has a built-in buster, while the girl appears to have a separate side-arm...it's very random. One of them may be a more advanced model."

"They don't seem very rusted." Casper noted. "Shouldn't they be? And shouldn't the girl's dress have rotted by now?"

"They've been engineered with the prototypes of modern anti-rust technology. It was invented then. You need to know your history." the doctor teased. "And as for the dress, it's made of poly-aluminoid fibers, almost the same as the hair. Given it's plastic characteristics, I'm surprised it's in as bad shape as it is now. But do you realize what we have here? We finally - possibly, if we are just lucky enough - we have here information from the first generation robots, from before the robot apocalypse even, right here in the shop! And all I had to do to find them was dig the foundation for my lab! How lucky! One in a billion, billion!"

Casper was glad that she was happy, but he was still bothered by something. "Doctor, you built this lab to work on your next generation of robotics. As interesting as the past is, I thought that you were headed in the opposite direction."

Reiko winked. "I'm headed in both directions at the same time! This is a break of inspiration! I've had the inspiration for the copy-shot for some time now...and you know what? I think it would be perfect for the next generation of intellegent machines to be designed after the first! I am inspired! Oh, don't look at me like that, Casper. Robotics is only half science, and the rest is art. High art, at that. Like how I built you, for example."

Casper laughed. "If I recall correctly, you told me that I was designed after _skateboarders_. And named after one of them too."

"Hey, they were stylish skateboarders." the doctor grinned, then turned back to her subjects. "Oh these...these two robots are going to be the parents of my greatest creation...uh..um...crap, I need to think of a name for him. But now that I have these two...oh! I see it in my head, I see it in my very head!"

Immediately Reiko pulled out her sketchbook and started scribbling and drawing away, merrily copying details from both of her discoveries, and adding new ones of her own. Muttering things like "head-fins...meh, not angled...", "maybe combine the hair colors..." and "oooh, that red stripe...how bold!". But as she sketched, she suddenly remembered something.

"Casper, be a good bot and hand me that bin over there, would you?"

Casper shrugged and obeyed, pulling a plastic bin off a nearby table and giving it to his creator. She took it, quickly searching through its contents, apparently for something specific.

"What's in the bin?"

"The objects found on these robots when they were discovered." Inafune answered distractedly as she dug around in the plastic storage. "Is it...is it...? Ah yes, it's here!"

The doctor pulled out a small object, one vaguely triangular and plastic. It was a guitar pick. Casper watched in amazement as his creator stared at it intently, trying to think of something that would make this thing worthy of the attention she gave it. She was hoping it would "remind her of something she'd never seen before", as she liked to put it. For the life of him, Casper didn't think he would ever understand humans.

"I've got it!"

"Yes?"

"This is a pick! A guitar pick!"

"I know what a pick is..."

"Stop it and let me finish. It's a guitar pick, which means one of these robots played the guitar! And when I think of guitars, I think of...AXL! Of course! That's going to be my new robot's name: Axl."

"After a guitar making company?" Casper sighed with a reluctant smile. "That's worse than the skateboarders. I feel sorry for this poor fellow."

Dr. Inafune put her hands on her hips with a mock attitude. "Well, if you're going to be Mr. Whine About Everything, then you can go back upstairs and do your job, how about that?"

"Why, I believe I will. A simple reploid such as myself could never understand your sense of artistry." the orange-red robot joked.

"Oh, get out of here, you." Dr. Inafune teasingly waved away her stylish creation. "I need to use my inspiration while it's fresh!"

Casper headed for the door and the stairs, but as he pulled at the doorknob, he looked back at his creator, who was happily sketching and drawing, every so often muttering little comments to the two oldstyle robots, saying how good it was to meet them and to see their artistic designs, and that she would definitely base her new craft after them. Casper didn't doubt that she had been every bit as excited when she had created him five years ago. And personally, he couldn't wait to see what the new robot was going to be like.

\\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- I didn't put any korean in this chapter. Crap. Um..._Ohlmahehyo? _means "how much is it?". Convenient if you go shopping in Korea, but most shopkeepers will understand "how much?" if nothing else. And do go there if you can. It's got great shopping in Seoul. Make sure you get some Asian pears and _pa'jon_, fried cakes. And I swear Coke just seems to taste better over there.

- Well, that's my last chapter. Hoped you liked it. Well, I've got the epilogue coming up, which will tell you more about the next part of the story, which should hopefully be shorter than this part. You'll definitely see more of Dr. Cain. Unfortunately, I won't be posted deleted scenes, as the guidelines seem to be against that sort of thing.

- I have a question for you peeps who have played the X series, if you don't mind answering: how much does Zero know about Wily? From what I've seen, it doesn't seem like he knows much of anything, but just in case I missed anything, yeah. Thanks. For the record, I'm going on the assumption that hologram Light knows nothing about Zero's creation.


	15. Epilogue: The Courage You Gave Me

It had been a surprisingly cold winter in California, but that was nothing compared to Russia. Dr. Cossack's region was now blanketed in frozen precipitation, not that that bothered Bass at all. In fact, he enjoyed it. Any robot would. His coolant system ran 300% more efficiently, saving energy and allowing him to operate more smoothly. And besides that, the colder weather kept crowds away, and Bass prefered to live in a more solitary place, even if he liked an audience for his fights.

But for now, he wouldn't be doing anything interesting. Nothing he cared to speak about, in any case. As he flew with Treble over the mountainous range, he surveyed the wide, snowy landscape. There was at least three feet of snow covering everything, and it was sort of nice. Dr. Cossack was smart for building his lab this far north.

Bass could see the lab from his position. He was returning from a week long expedition throughout the local mountains, scanning. It was about time he got back for maintenance, and to also call Dr. Light. He never let a week go by without calling the doctor. As Bass neared the lab, he saw something glimmering on the roof. He just rolled his eyes. At least she wasn't sitting on the edge again.

Crystal Bot was sitting on the roof, and was trying to play a song he didn't recognise on her guitar. Bass landed, and Treble, wagging his tail, went over to Crystal Bot and cheerfully barked his greetings.

"Trebby!" Crystal exclaimed, putting down her guitar in her lap and reaching out to pet the purple wolf. "Good doggie!"

The dark robot cringed, surprised that Treble tolerated that sort of talk. "What are you doing up here?"

"Why, hello to you too, Forte-kun. I'm so glad to see that you're not blown up." She stuck her tongue out at him. "See, that's the sort of thing people say when they've been gone a while. You're so rude."

"Whatever." Bass sat down on the other side of Treble, who was comfortably lying down on the shingles and letting Crystal Bot continue to pet him. "But answer my question: what are you doing up here?"

The girl-bot pointed out in the distance. "See that junkyard over there? That's where Dust Man is. This guy from Japan got bored and made theme songs for the robot masters, and I'm playing Dust Man's theme to cheer him up. He's so sad, but who can blame him? All he does all day is crush cars and trucks and even robots all day in that huge metal compactor. It's so sad, and creepy! And did you know he doesn't have a mouth? He only talks by radio transmissions, and he doesn't do that a lot." Crystal Bot sighed. "It seems like all the Cossack-bots are so emo all the time. Ring Man's sort of normal, but even he's more hyper than happy."

"Huh." Bass didn't care that much. But he figured since it would be seven in the morning in California and he would have some time to kill before he could actually call Dr. Light, he leaned back against the slope of the roof and decided to let her talk. "Who are the other Cossack-bots again?"

"Pssht. Didn't you meet them before you ran off on your little expedition?"

"No."

"Weirdo. Anyway, there's also Drill Man, who's sort of nuts, but he's nice. You won't see him for a while because he just left yesterday on work. You won't see Dive Man either, 'cause he's been gone since before we got here. He's always looking for Pirate Man and putting a stop to his schemes. Toad Man's here, and he runs the greenhouse. Dr. Cossack changed out his acid attack for normal water, and now he spends all day with his plants. Kinda boring really. Oh, and they call it 'Wily disease' here, not 'Toad Man disease' for obvious reasons."

"I'm sure you found that out quick. Does Cossack have a cure for it?"

"No..."

"Eh, sucks to be you."

"Shut up." Crystal Bot pouted for a moment before continuing, though her annoyance got no reaction out of Bass. "So anyway, there's also Skull Man, and he's so creepy! He hides around the lab in all the dark corners he can find, and he just stands there until I walk up and he tries to scare me! And just so I don't know it's him, he hides real human skulls too!" Crystal shuddered. "He's supposed to be some sort of security bot, but he's just scary. Dr. Cossack says he was Wily's idea."

Bass figured as much. "Isn't there a lab-bot somewhere around?"

The girl-bot scowled. "Yeah, Bright Man. He's such a butt! I make one little explosion and he's all screaming at me to get out of 'his' lab. Dr. Cossack said he had to share! The meanie bulb-head! And here I was about to upgrade the Cossack-bots all nice like. Well, _he's_ definitely going _last._"

"Cossack can take care of his own." Bass commented indifferently. "You don't have to worry about it."

"Nope, I do." Crystal shook her head. "Apparently Dr. Cossack is a biologist. He knows some about robotics, more than most, but he likes to cure diseases, and that's his specialty. Especially when his wife died a long time ago. He doesn't always focus on keeping his robots top of the line. Hehe, I told him right to his face it was a shame, but at first I don't think he realized I was joking. I'll get those bots in order! Kalinka is getting into robotics, which is good, because Bright Man is no help. Hmph! At least Pharoah Man is nice. He has a cool mechaniloid army!"

Bass just shrugged. Pharoah Man annoyed him, but then again, most robot masters did. Though the Egypt bot was worse, because he had the idea that he could somehow tell Bass what to do, and Bass was intent on disproving this assumption.

"Forte-kun?" Crystal Bot interrupted his thoughts. "What are we really doing here? I know we're not after some sort of Wily-trap. Pharoah Man's mechaniloids would be enough to handle something like that, Skull Man and Ring Man besides. You're after something else, aren't you?"

"Zero." Bass' mood immediately dropped as he spoke the name, and his eyes narrowed. "He's this robot that Wily designed-"

"To replace you, I know. Wily did little without telling me."

Bass stared at her incredulously. "You worked on Zero?"

"Oh no. Wily never let me near that robot. His special project...ugh, he would always say that there's no way he can compromise his security by putting sensitive information in a hackable robot's head." Crystal Bot rolled her eyes in annoyance. "But I saw some specs of Zero once. He's so darn ugly. Wily was trying out some sort of 'new wave' design, and I never had the heart to tell him it's horrible. Anyway, you think Zero's out here?"

"Yeah. I got hold of a part of his location coordinates, and I tracked it down to somewhere in northern Russia. Think about it: the ground gets tough and hard to dig in during the winter, and who would think to look here anyway? I've got a pretty big territory to cover when I look, but since I have the tracer code I'll be able to track him down if I get close enough."

"So what you're saying is, 'Sonata-san please make me some new sensor array so that I can detect underground better'. I'm on it!" Crystal Bot peppily saluted. "Oh hey, aren't we going to tell Rock?"

"About Zero? No way." Bass scoffed. "I can handle this myself. Besides, I don't want him telling Dr. Light. The guy's had enough time to worry about world peace and all that crap. It's about time he didn't have to think about these things."

"Ah, so here you're saying 'I'm big and macho and I just can't stand some blue boy beating me to the punch'. Isn't that right?"

"Shut it."

His tone was threatening, but Crystal simply giggled. "Oh, don't be so serious. You and your fighter-bot pride, hmph! But I think you should tell Rock anyway, and I'm sure he wouldn't tell Dr. Light if you explained that it's not a good idea."

"Ugh, why? MegaDweeb's got his own troubles, and he's not that smart anyway."

"Well of course, that's the point!" the girl-bot exclaimed. "Just think about it. What if, by some stroke of luck, Rock somehow comes across Zero first, and then he'll be like, 'oh gee, look at this poor shut down robot! I better get him to the lab so that he can wake up and damage my stuff or steal it!' Come on, you know how he is."

"Ha, that's him alright." Bass smirked. "But you keep it to yourself anyway. The less people know, the better."

"Does Cossack know?"

"Yeah, him and Pharoah Man. Pharoah's mechaniloids are searching as well, but in the worst climates, it's best if I go. Besides, I really doubt any Cossack-bot can handle this guy."

"Especially as they are now." Crystal agreed. "But uh, how dangerous is Zero supposed to be, anyway?"

"I'm not sure." Bass said a little moodily as he stared at the grey sky. "Probably worse than King. From what I can guess, he's Wily's answer to Mega Man X. That's good, because that probably means I'll have until X's activation to look for him. But it sucks not knowing what I'm getting into." Bass glanced sidelong at her. "You sure you don't know anything about him?"

"Well, not much. Just what he looks like, that he's made from bassnium, and wields some sort of energy sword."

"Ranged weapons?"

"None that I know of. Not that that's a reason to assume he doesn't have them."

"Heh. And how exactly did you find this out without Wily catching you?"

"He did catch me. I stumbled across some stray data one day -"

"Because you were looking for it." Bass rolled his eyes.

Crystal giggled. "As I was saying, I _stumbled_ across it absolutely by complete and total _chance_, and of course Wily understood that I wasn't prying, but just being my curious little self while looking up something for the robot masters. Didn't get mad at me at all, even. He'd never be mad at his..." Crystal paused and sighed bitterly. "his little fake daughter..."

She silenced a moment. Bass cringed, hoping that she wasn't going to say something about missing Wily. And her being upset alone annoyed him. However, she suddenly and thankfully smiled, changing the topic.

"Listen to me being all emo! That won't do at all! Heehee! Oh, Forte-kun, Dr. Light is so nice! Ever since he operated on my head, it's been working so much better! I thought of how to fix your double busters. All I have to do is put the energy crystals in such a way that you can choose to use them or not. Silly me, I should have remembered that your regular buster is designed to really knock out most enemies. Not everybody is vulnerable to crystal energy.

"Oh, and I know how much you hate the signal shot, but I think I can adjust it to some sort of non-lethal knock out substance just in case you ever have to fight humans. Not all bad guys are bots. And if that doesn't work, I suppose regular tranquilizers will do. Oh hey, I think I can make you at least partially immune to death spikes. Like you said the other day, you're simply too powerful to be completely immune. But at least I can make them do a little less damage...crystal spikes at least. I'm sorry I can't do any better."

"It's better than nothing. What else?"

"Okay, so I can speed up your dash by 15%, increase your jump range by 23.2%, and I have a new anti-virus that will literally go out and attack any computer that tries for any unauthorized access. Only I have the full access code, but just for safety I think I'll give Auto and Gravity Man partial access codes. You never know if they'll need to work on you for something. And just in case I go all mechaniloid again, I went ahead and gave you an adjusted version of the gyro blade. I think next I'll start working on making the echelon heatshock a little more efficient."

"For you, Trebby," Crystal Bot turned to the wolf, whose ears popped up eagerly. "I'm making your tail into a cannon, 'cause that's what it looks like. When Zero pops up, you'll both be ready!"

The dark robot revealed his fangs in an encouraging smirk, thinking that this arrangement was going to work out very well. Taking Crystal Bot with him had been a good idea, and she seemed happy to be of service, at least for the time being. Treble, thinking the conversation over, barked at Crystal and nudged her guitar with his nose. She grinned, picked it up again and started strumming, and the wolf settled back down happily, listening contentedly. Bass listened as well, but he was mostly preoccupied, wondering if she was going to want to return to her team when this was over.

"Sonata?"

"_Mwo_?"

"It's probably going to take a long time to find Zero. Think you'll be alright here for a while?"

"Sure. I always keep busy. Between you and working on the Cossacks, I don't think I'll ever get bored. Ooh, and I'll teach Kalinka what I know so that she can be all smart too! Aw, too bad she's going off to university next year." Crystal Bot stopped playing for a moment and looked up at him curiously. "For a while?"

"You thought we were staying here forever?" Bass scoffed. "We don't answer to anyone anymore. Once this is done, we can go wherever we like. We'll go see the world and all that."

"Ooh!" the girl-bot suddenly perked up. "I know where I want to go!"

Bass rolled his eyes, mildly amused. "Let me guess: South Korea."

"Actually I was thinking about Austria, because I heard there was this scientist there who had a new idea for teleportation for less energy." Crystal Bot giggled. "But Korea sounds good too. Oh hey, that Japanese musician guy also made a theme for you. Want to hear it? It's really cool."

"Sure."

The girl-bot started playing, and Bass decided that the tune was suitable to be named after him. He really liked it, in fact. But as much as he did, he had to interrupt it with some news that he knew his friend would find troublesome.

"Ring Man's training you to fight while I'm gone."

The guitar screeched in pain as Crystal Bot cringed with horror, her mind reeling at the thought of showing off her embarrassing lack of battle skill. "You're not serious...are you?"

Bass scowled, sitting up and pointing accusingly at his technician. "Don't think you're hanging around here if I have to babysit you all the time. You're going to be a competent fighter, Toad Man disease -"

"It's not -"

"Fine, _Wily_ disease or not, I didn't get you that gun for looks. You're going to use it, or you're going back to Team 5. Besides, I'd rather not have to put up with Jewel Man's whining if something happened to you. I'd have to tear him to shreds just to make him shut up."

"Oh you're just teasing. You'd never hurt my stepdad." Crystal tittered, a little nervously, not certain of her own statement.

"Not if you learn to fight competently. Ugh, and don't call him that. You're not a human and you don't have family."

"You're such a grumpy-butt." she smiled and shook her head, starting to play again. "But I'll fight if you really want me too."

Crystal Bot returned to her playing, getting noticeably louder as she played the theme again. Bass just stared again at the grey sky, musing over everything that had happened. It occurred to him that for the first time since he'd been built, he actually enjoyed his life. He had freedom; freedom from his past, from his loneliness, and even from his anger. It was an odd feeling.

And as much as he hated to admit it to himself, his old lifestyle had basically been killing him. How could anyone live only for revenge, for superiority? He'd had this conversation with Dr. Light before, in the hospital. What would he have done had he actually destroyed Mega Man? Bass had realized that he had no clue about that whatsoever. Dr. Light had also asked what the point of his being superior was, and that also was unanswerable. The questions annoyed Bass, but at the same time, he was glad that they were being asked. He never had thought about it before.

One part of his old ways that still clung to him was the notion of defeating Mega Man. The question of whether or not it was actually possible still haunted him, but it had weakened. There was no more point to it. With a sense of regret, Bass knew that question would never be answered. And he knew he could live with that. He would prove his strength with his restraint. And he promised himself, one day, that he would figure out the difference between destroying the enemy and protecting others. Bass wondered if people would ever see him the way they did Rock.

For now, Bass was content. Staring at the grey sky above him once more, he began to realize how little of his surroundings he had actually noticed when he was with Wily. The place was a cold paradise, shimmering with bright snow. The only sound, other than Crystal Bot's guitar, was the sound of Dust Man's work, which from that distance was almost peaceful. It reminded him of a certain song...

_**BANG, BANG, BANG!**_

The racket came from below, as if someone where pounding on the ceiling of the lab beneath them. Crystal Bot grinned and stomped her foot in reply.

"We're sitting right on top of Bright Man's lab, aren't we?"

Crystal giggled. "Aw, you know me. I'm just being helpful. Bright Man needs to get acquainted with the high art of music."

Bass snickered. "Okay, I'll help. Play Okkusenman."

The girl-bot gasped. "You'll sing it?"

"Sure, ear bleed and all."

For a moment, his technician was doubtful. "Um, I think Pharaoh Man'll get mad at us."

"Pssht. He can go 'get acquainted with the high art of music' too, for all I care."

Another giggle. "Hehe...okay, I'll start us off. 3...2...1..."

-t-

The waves were soothing. And unlike where he had come from, Thomas Light found the the tempurature wonderfully warm on his now sensitive skin. The quiet beach was empty, and that was just fine for the doctor. He just sat peacefully in his wheelchair, absorbing the contentedness of the place as Roll pushed him out onto the sand. Roll was quite happy there as well, and she liked to watch the doctor as he happily observed their meditative surroundings. He was doing so much better these days.

"Thinking about moving down here, Dr. Light?" Roll asked gently. "It would be nice."

The doctor inhaled another breath of the salty air. "It is, but retiring to Florida is so typical. And usually California isn't as bad as it has been this year. But...this is a pleasant place. Though I doubt I would have come here if Rock hadn't insisted I stay away from the lab."

"Well, he's right." Roll answered as she brought the wheelchair to a stop and set up an umbrella in the dirt behind him. "No sense in you staying where the robot masters can find you."

"I know, I know." Dr. Light smiled deeply as he closed his eyes as if in meditation. "Ah, Roll...I think things are going to turn out marvelously. Things have finally changed for the better, after all these years...Rock is well on his way to defeating the last of the robot masters, Bass is realizing his potential for good, and that delightful Crystal Bot has already proved that the concepts behind Mega Man X are sound. And seven other Wily-bots are now working finally on the right side of the law. I'm starting to believe that everything is coming together. The future..it's going to be bright..."

Roll remained silent. She didn't like what Dr. Light was saying. It sounded as if he were proclaiming that the earth was good enough to carry on without him; that he was starting to feel ready to die. And the girl-bot, as strong as she had been in the past few weeks, didn't think that she would be strong enough to get along without her creator. She wasn't ready for him to go.

So Roll sat down in the sand next to him, looking up at the vast blue ocean as it rushed forward and then receded again, disappearing into a blue eternity. She smiled and turned to her creator, saying, "Doctor, I'm not thinking about the future at all. I'm just thinking about right now."

-t-

A yellow scarf blew in the wind, casually wrapped around the neck of a simply designed red and grey robot. The shades built into his helmet prevented his eyes from being seen, but had they been visible, they would have shown concern.

Monstropolis looked very peaceful from the robot's perch, high atop the skyscraper Kauffman Tower. Mega Man had done a good job of protecting his city in California, for the time being. Dr. Cain was merely set back, and he would return with a vengeance. There were four robot masters left: Sight Man, Bullet Man, Algorythm Man, and Epic Man, each of whom had witnessed the defeats of their siblings. They had learned a lot from the previous fights, and they would be ready.

But the robot smiled slightly, even as he thought about it. He would help Mega Man; he always helped his brother in any way that he could. First he would have to do some investigation, but once he found Cain, he would let Rock know. The red robot wasn't going to let anyone become the next Dr. Wily.

In the distance, he saw a dark blue speck. He engaged his zoom feature, though he already knew that it was Mega Man, flying in on his trusty dog Rush. Certainly enough, the blue bomber had seen him. Not one to attract attention to himself, the robot stealthily descended the other side of Kauffman tower, his yellow scarf trailing behind him for one short instant. And then it was gone.

Something bright flashed in the corner of Mega Man's eye. He turned, but failed to see anything. Yet he knew who it was all the same. He saw that same flicker of yellow on occasion over the years, and he knew what it meant. Looking at the place his lost brother once stood, he waved slowly, even knowing that it was pointless. The red and grey robot never waved back. But that didn't stop Rock. He only stared into the distance, a sense of optimism rising from within him.

_Proto Man...I hope that one day you'll be fighting with me too!_

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Author's notes:

- And...scene! This is it, y'all! I really hope you liked this story. Thanks to all my reviewers, and I love y'all lots! I hope you guys enjoyed this story as much as I did. That was "Okkusenman", part one of three in my between 9 and X series. How'd y'all like my portrayal of Bass and Crystal Bot? Well, they'll still be around, but part two, "How Many People Love You?", will focus more on Megaman and Proto Man, who need to take center stage. After all, they are pen-ultimate old school, and it's about time Proto Man got some spotlight in my story. Also, you'll get to see more Dr. Cain. I have something special in mind for part three...muahahahaa!

- _Mwo_ means "what". _Mwo-eh-yo?_ means "what's happening?"


	16. Bonus Features

A blonde girl with large glasses is standing on a stage. Pushing on the bridge of her glasses with a finger, she picks up a microphone and starts to speak.

"Hi there, all! I'm GrimMoody, author of Okkusenman! And welcome to my show, Bonus Features! Here I'm going to interview the Mega Man robots, as interpreted by the story. Here you'll get to hear not only from them, but also see some deleted or bonus scenes that I couldn't otherwise fit into the story! Well, the good ones, anyway. So everybody please welcome Mega Man, Roll, Bass, and Crystal Bot!"

The sound of canned applause rings out as the aforementioned robots enter the stage and sit down at four different red chairs.

"What, you couldn't get in a real, live audience?" Bass snorted.

"Quiet, you. This is a reading format, and you can't exactly have a live audience for it." GrimMoody answered. "Okay, before we get started, let me discuss the rules. First of all, since reader participation is technically against the guidelines, I won't be taking reviewer questions. Sorry! Possibly I might answer your questions in the future through out my next story in the between classic and X series, How Many People Love You?, so you can post them anyway...hmmm, that's technically against the guidelines, isn't it?"

Mega Man spoke up. "Don't worry about it. I mean, technically any review could have some affect on the story whether you request it or not."

"And didn't you break that rule when you asked people to suggest an alternate name for me?" Crystal Bot put in. "And when you asked them to guess what _cheosang hamnida_ means?"

GrimMoody pauses a moment and thinks about it. "Aw, crap...oops...well, I'll try to be good from now on."

"Why do you care?" Bass remarked. "It's not like the mods here actually do anything."

"That's enough, don't get me in trouble, okay? Now let me finish these rules." Grimm pulls out a card. "Okay, so no reviewer participation, and um, this is a non-canon interview for the characters, so they're not going to remember any of this for the actual story. I'm going to ask them several questions about whatever topic I feel like, and they are required to answer. Okay, so first some introductory questions just to get things started. For everyone, what is your favorite color?

Mega Man answered, "Ah, blue, definitely."

"I like red." said Roll.

"Gold." Bass answered disinterestedly. "Green's okay."

"Pink!" Crystal Bot squealed. "And shiny!"

"Shiny isn't a color." Mega Man pointed out.

"Shut up, dweeb! It is if I say it is!" she stuck her tounge out at him.

"Chill out, Crystal." Grimm went on to the next question. "Alright, if you had to name one person, who would be your hero?"

Bass scoffed. "What a lame question. I'm my own hero."

Crystal Bot thought a moment. "Hey Forte-kun, Rock saved your life. Doesn't that make him your hero?"

Bass glared evily at Crystal until she turned away, giggling nervously.

Mega Man smiled. "I really can't say anyone but Dr. Light. He's really important to me, and he's always been so wise."

"I choose Dr. Light too." Roll answered.

"I, uh, change my answer." Bass reluctantly spoke. "It's Dr. Light."

"Forte-kun!" Crystal Bot gleefully exclaimed.

"Okay, so this next question is for the guys. Out of all the robots, who has been your the most fun to fight?"

Mega Man thought about this for a moment. "Well, I don't fight for the fun of it, but I'd definitely have to say Gravity Man, because not only was he an interesting opponent, but his level was really different and interesting. But I like rescuing people better than fighting."

Bass too thought this was a harder question. "You're expecting me to say Rock, right? Eh, fighting him at first was fun but...he kept getting lucky, so it just got more annoying after that. All the other robots I've ever fought were lame and no challenge at all. I'm going to say Proto Man because I haven't fought him before, and it could be interesting to see how easy he is to defeat."

Mega Man stared at him with horror. "You wouldn't!"

"Did I say I was going to kill him? Relax, you moron. Then again..."

"Alright, I know you're just trying to mess with my head." Mega Man said confidently. "So I'm going to trust in your good nature and not believe that you'll hurt Blues."

"Think whatever you want, Rock. Whatever makes you feel better."

Mega Man cringed with worry as Grimm went on to the next question. "Alright, this question is for Crystal Bot. What exactly do you remember about Crystal Man?"

Crystal answered somberly. "Well, if it weren't for what he had put on Jewel Man's hard drive, I wouldn't remember much at all. Dr. Wily deleted a lot of his memories before letting me have them so that I would think I was the original, but Dad was able to hide some of his memories along with my spare AI, so there's a little something there. Mostly it's just mechanical stuff, so I always ask people for memories of him when I get a chance. Apparently he didn't talk to other people a lot...so, yeah...I keep hoping that somehow I'll find some back ups and be able to rebuild him. I don't think I'll ever be able to though."

"Wow, that's sad." Grimm mentioned. "Fun fact: Crystal Man is my favorite character from the Mega Man series because his music is so awesome. Next question, for Bass. Crystal Bot wasn't Wily's idea, so she doesn't really count in this regard, so why are all of Wily's robots male?"

"Uh, he hates women because he could never get any?" Bass guessed. "Eh, he always was trying, and failing, to build the best robots ever, and I guess he doesn't think a girl-bot would count as ultimate. Considering how lame his robots turned out to be, maybe he should have tried it. But I don't really know for sure."

"Hee hee, imagine Forte-kun as a girl!" Crystal Bot squealed. "so cute!"

"NO." Bass grimaced. "Never say that again!"

"Well, as it so happens," Grimm winked. "I have Dr. Wily on the camera phone from prison. Why don't we ask him?"

Bass groaned as a screen behind all four robots turned on, and Wily in a orange jumpsuit appeared, not looking very happy.

"What do you want?" Wily muttered.

"Hi there, Wily." GrimMoody cheerfully greeted him. "We here on the Bonus Feature show were just wondering why you never made any girl-bots."

"Oh, _that_." Wily wrinkled his nose as he answered. "Because I'm not a pervert, that's why! Do you know how many rumors went around about Thomas just because he built Roll? I'm an evil villain, and I can't have ridiculous notions getting out about me. I have my reputation to consider! The only reason I allowed Crystal Bot to stay was because she was almost never involved in the public part of my schemes, and most people didn't even know she worked for me."

Crystal Bot was confused. "Uh, what rumors do you mean? And what's a pervert? I don't get it..."

"And I also made her incapable of understanding anything of that nature." Wily added.

"Ah, good move." GrimMoody changed her card, then addressed the cameras. "Okay, it's about time for a deleted scene! Auto! Pull out clip number one!"

-From Chapter 6:

**"Does the old man know about this?"**

**"Oh, he's still asleep. I'll tell him when he wakes up." Crystal handed him his new helmet. "Besides, of course he wants me to upgrade you. You're his favorite robot."**

**"Now that's a lie."**

**"No, no, it's totally true." Her expression was completely honest. "It's why he's so hard on you, and that's why he's programmed you with a lot more freedom than his other robots. You're capable of a lot that the rest of us aren't. I know Dad expects a lot from you, but that's because he's put his heart and soul into making you the best robot there is. You're even better than Zero."**

**Bass' eyes widened. "You know about Zero?"**

**"Sure, Dad does little I don't know about. Zero is mostly just to counter Megaman X, whenever that guy shows up. I've seen Zero's scematics, and let me tell you, that guy is a lot of firepower, but terribly mediocre battle AI. It's all about the mind, Forte! A little kid with a pencil can beat the deadliest, most well-armed robot, if he's got a brain in him. You're totally superior to Zero. Especially in looks. I think Dad made Zero so goofy and girly looking just to mock Dr. Light." Crystal Bot shrugged. "But anyway, of course Dad likes you. You're just like him."**

**That gave Bass pause. The thought that they were anything alike disturbed him. Who would want to be like a crazed evil scientist?**

**From the look on Bass' face, Crystal guessed what he was thinking. "Think about it. You and Megaman are just like him and Dr. Light. You're both totally cooler than Megaman and Light, and you're hardcore rivals. Though with one key difference: Dr. Light is definitely way smarter than Dad. I've seen his work. It's pretty undeniable. But nothing says you can't be better than Megaman. Blue boy isn't that much of a fighter, especially since he doesn't ever fight unless he has to, and he drops all of the weapons he gains as soon as he defeats a group of robot masters. Such a waste."**

**"If Light's so much better than Wily, why don't you go work for him?" Bass sneered. **

**"Please." Crystal Bot rolled her eyes. "If I was a Light-bot I'd get stuck doing something stupid like making cars. Dad makes cool stuff like bombs and Armoroids. I can always steal what I want from Light. Besides, Wily's my dad. **

"Okay," Grimm started. "I'm a little sad I cut this scene, but I felt I had to do it because the conversation was going on longer than I wanted, and it really felt like I'd be shoehorning it into the plot unnecesarily. However, I do like the idea of Bass first considering how similar to Wily he might be, because it would start his character down the path to his conclusion in Okkusenman. If I could have fit that idea into the plot somehow differently, I would have, but yeah, there it is. Guys, your reactions?"

"WE'RE NOTHING ALIKE!" Bass and Dr. Wily immediately exclaim at the same time, then turn to each other and continue. "SHUT UP! STOP DOING THAT!"

The other robots burst out laughing.

"That robot was a _mistake_, and nothing more!" Dr. Wily snarled. "He's a complete failure, not a successful genius such as myself!"

"Yeah, and that's why _you're _the one in prison." Bass remarked with sarcasm before turning to the other robots. "Seriously, I'm not like this idiot, right?"

"Uh..." Mega Man reluctantly began, trying to not smile. "Do you want me to be honest or nice?"

"WHAT? Sonata, tell me that Rock's wrong."

Crystal Bot giggled. "Oh, why are you so worried? You only got his good qualities."

"WHAT GOOD QUALITIES?"

"Well, you're determined and you're smart, and you're funny!"

Bass slumped in his chair with aggravation, burying his face in his hands.

"You guys are so mean." Roll put in. "Bass, you're well...nicer than Wily. A little. Sort of. Well, you're a good guy now, so you must be...I think."

"I take it back. I'm killing Rock." Bass hissed. "I'm killing all of you."

"Nope, you're not. Chill, Bass." GrimMoody humorously continued. "Okay, Wily, before we let you go, any last comments for anyone here?"

"Yes. Mega Man, I hope you die a horrible and miserable death. Crystal Bot, I will never forgive you for betraying me and I'm glad I killed Crystal Man. Roll...eh, whatever. And Bass, you're nothing like me because you are the most miserable robot I have had the lack of sense to build, and you are a complete and utter failure, you pointless mother fu-"

GrimMoody turned the screen off. "Aaaand that's the end of that. Auto, throw on another couple of deleted scenes, okay?"

**- From Chapter 7**

**guessing that Dr. Wily was awake. "Good morning, Dad!"**

**The monitoring system, while still malfunctioning for communicating outside of the fortress, was fortunately almost perfect for talking from room to room inside the fortress itself. A wavery image of Dr. Wily appeared on the screen. **

**"Good morning, Crystal Bot." Dr. Wily was always cheerful talking to her. "What's your status?"**

**"Well, I've got the last of the robots going right now, but I've been researching a new anti-virus on the web, and I'd like to see what a little Wily-brand engineering can do to improve it. So can I go out today?" Crystal asked in her cutest voice. "Please?"**

**Wily laughed. Crystal Bot could get whatever she wanted, and she knew it. "Alright, but be safe. **

**-Still Chapter 7**

**Echelon Man had put himself back together, sans several chunks of his armor, though the remaining wedges seemed to have distributed themselves fairly evenly. **

**"Wily-bot sighted." Echelon Man's boring voice droned. "Targeting."**

**"**_**Aigoo**_**!" Crystal Bot rolled her eyes. "I don't have time for this nonsense."**

**She pulled out a pink crystal, growing it into a proper size. As she expected, Megaman again went after Echelon Man, distracting him long enough for her to get a nice length for the perfect instant death spike. The trouble was, however, that she should be unable to move while the death spike was stabilized; if she moved, it would just be an energy crystal.**

**But seeing as Echelon Man was after her, he did his best to distract Megaman with two of his pieces before going after her**

**-Again, Chapter 7 (sheesh, what's with this chapter?) **

**Fire Man, come in."**

**After a moment, a perfectly clear image of two of his six robots appeared. Fire Man and Ice Man were in the city, running towards the shopping district.**

**"Fire Man, report."**

**"Nothing much has been happening until just a minute ago." Fire Man said. "Another Cain-bot appeared, and he and Megaman are fighting in the middle of the city. Orders?"**

**"Don't let Megaman destroy him. We need to figure out what Dr. Cain is doing next, and how close he is to finding our base." Wily replied. **

**"We'll do what we can!" the ever determined Ice Man answered.**

**Wily shut down the audio communication, but left the visuals on screen for a moment, before seeming to change his mind. **

"These here are just a bunch of tidbits that didn't really add anything to the story." GrimMoody mentioned. "I was just adding them for personality, so that the story was less dry. However, for the first I realized it would be better if Crystal just left instead of trying to convince Wily it was a good idea. For the second, I didn't feel like including Crystal in a fight scene with Echelon Man and Rock, because I don't really like writing fight scenes, most of the time. For the third, that was going to be the transition of how Wily found out what Crystal was doing. But really, it was just more dramatic that the reader just suddenly found out Wily was listening rather than otherwise. Reactions from y'all?"

Crystal Bot spoke quietly. "Can we not show any scenes where I call Wily 'dad'? He's not my real dad, and I don't like him."

Mega Man spoke up as well. "Hey, why did you make it so I didn't get Echelon Man's power? Or any Cain-bot powers for that matter? I'm the one that has to finish the rest of them off, and it would be good to have something other than my buster."

GrimMoody grinned like a cheshire cat. "Fun fact: Bass is my second favorite character."

"Hey wait," Bass noticed. "If Crystal Man is your favorite, but you killed him off, then what stops you from killing me?"

GrimMoody smiled even bigger.

"Great...we're all screwed."

"Actually, Bass, you were anyway." the author pointed out. "None of you...well, I'll let y'all see what happens. Okay, more questions. How do you guys feel about your Mega Man Network Transmission equivalents?"

"Well, I don't have any complaints about mine." Mega Man happily answered. "He's fun, powerful, kind, and he has a great NetOp. I wish I could visit him. It would be a lot of fun!"

"Mine is cool, though it's sort of weird I'm not Rock's sister in that one." Roll answered. "And also...what's wrong with her wardrobe? I would never wear anything like that! And what are those things on her head? But I'm glad that she's brave. She's way braver than I am."

"Ugh..." Bass cringed. "Mine is...tolerable, the one from the games, that is. But he's too much like Proto Man is in this universe. He's way too much of an emo, and he _still _hasn't defeated Rock, except for that one time. At least he doesn't suck too bad, and it's good that he wasn't created by Wily. And he's not hideous like two-thirds of the net universe. The anime version, though...what kind of crack were the writers smoking when they came up with _that _guy? Not only is he more emo, but he's the _remains_of some other program that looks and acts completely different? How is that supposed to make sense?"

"Well, I'm just an OC, so I don't have an NT equivalent," Crystal Bot shrugged. "But what I don't understand is why my dad has no navi. Meanies! He'd be a great character!"

"This next question is for all of you again, or whoever wants to answer. Do you have any comments for our reviewers? Please be nice, we want these people to come back, okay?"

Roll shifted uncomfortably. "Uh...none of the reviewers mentioned me. Don't I have any fans out there?"

"No." Bass answered. "You suck."

Roll glared at him.

"And you're a nag. And you're ugly."

Rock couldn't let him go on. "Hey, stop it. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

"That won't work." Bass scoffed. "Moody over here won't let me leave."

"Look, just don't talk that way about my sister, okay? You don't have to be so grumpy all the time." Mega Man shook his head and turned back to the camera. "Well, I'd like to say thanks for reviewing! I love to hear from all of you! And also, don't worry, I'll continue to protect you from any robot that threatens the community."

"Forte won't let me read the reviews for some reason." Crystal Bot remarked with irritation. "I'm not sure why."

"Just trust me on that, okay? And Distant Moon...you're wrong. _Completely_. We're _**robots**_. And even if we weren't she'd be my _niece_!"

"Uh...okay..." a very confused Crystal went on. "I did get to read one review before Forte caught me, so I'm going to ask MungoJerry a question. Mungo, are you a monkey? Because if I had a pet monkey, I would totally name him after you. It's a really great monkey name."

The others stare at Crystal Bot.

"Eh...hee hee? It's a joke...yeah...what I really meant to ask was um, um, what's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? Uh, yeah, that was it...hehe..."

"And there's another reason right there why Distant Moon is so completely wrong." Bass added. "Tylterra, however, is cool. I think maybe a little obsessed, but yeah, still cool. I bet Top Man _does _smoke weed."

"How is that even possible?" Rock asked.

"I'm sure he'd find a way."

"I'd also like to thank Anmynous, Lalalei, and the dude who went by the smilie face for their reviews. Auto, go ahead and throw those next deleted scenes on up there." GrimMoody said cheerfully. "Let's get this crowd back to business."

**- From Chapter 9**

**Wave Man and his remaining team members were behind them, watching the fight. Star Man, Gravity Man and Wave Man both observed the fight with cautious curiousity, watching the violence continue without a word. Napalm Man, though usually eager to both watch and participate in fights, held back, nervously uncertain of what he should do. Charge Man, however, was basically chomping at the bit to run in, though like Napalm he wasn't sure which side to fight for. He looked with impatience at Wave Man, waiting for some sort of order.**

**"I found Gyro and Stone." Star Man commented. "From what I've recovered from their hard drives, it looks like Gyro managed to convince Stone to help Forte destroy Crystal."**

**"Stone Man always was gullible." Gravity Man spitefully added. "And I guess Gyro Man's had enough."**

**"Haven't we all?" Wave Man's attitude was more melancholy than that of the other Team 5 robots. "I am disappointed that Gyro Man wasn't able to wait for my orders."**

**Napalm Man approached, more nervous than ever. "Uh, Wave Man...we aren't going to fight Wily, are we? It just doesn't seem right...maybe if we fight Bass and Megaman, he'll forgive us and we won't be reprogrammed."**

**"Or maybe we'll all be destroyed fighting them, and the end result would be basically the same." Wave Man replied smoothly. "We don't have the battle AI for such a task."**

**"But we can't fight Wily!" Gravity Man exclaimed. "We'll self-destruct!"**

**"What do you think, Star Man?" Wave Man asked.**

**"We should not involve ourselves. My space station is a safe alternative to battle."**

**"No good." Gravity Man objected. "The only people who can reach us are Light and Wily, the two people who can cause us the most trouble."**

**"And that still leaves us with what we will do next." agreed Wave Man. "Besides that, we won't last long without **

**- From Chapter 13:**

**Jewel Man wandered into the back room of the lab, wondering what he was hearing. If he had been human, he would have described the tune as haunting and beautiful, but as it was, he could only call it odd. He opened the door to the lounge, a spacious room with long, plush sofas and huge windows that displayed the yard and woods outside, as it on the side of the house facing away from the city. Upon entering, he noticed the girl-bots there; Roll on her keyboard, Crystal Bot on her guitar, and Splash Woman on her ocarina. Not wanting to interrupt them, Jewel Man just quietly entered and listened as they finished their tune.**

**"Oh wonderful, just wonderful!" Splash Woman applauded the others in a matronly fashion. "I never knew that there were such talented young lady-bots out there. Bravo!"**

**Crystal Bot giggled. "Oh, Splash Woman, me and Roll were talking the other day, and we think that we should make a girl-bot only band, and we were going to call it The Digital Sweethearts."**

**Roll was surprised. "I thought you were just joking about that."**

**"Oh no, not at all. Besides, you came up with such a great name!"**

**Splash Woman smiled, but shook her head. "No, I'm afraid that my job of protecting the seas is more important. Pirate Man wasn't destroyed in the battle, and though I know he prefers to fight Dive Man, but that doesn't mean I won't see him again. And that's besides shipwrecks and oil spills."**

**"Yeah, and I have to take care of Dr. Light, anyway." Roll also declined. **

**"Poo!" Crystal Bot complained with a grin. "Ah well, I suppose Team 5 needs me anyway."**

**Wave Man entered the room, pleasantly greeting the ladies before turning to Jewel Man. "You know, when I asked you to look for Crystal Bot, I was sort of hoping that you would send her out to meet us."**

**"Ooh! We're leaving now?" Crystal immediately put down her guitar, then reached down to make sure that her gun was still there. **

**"It's my fault, and I apologize, Wave Man." Splash Woman spoke. "I just wanted to take a little time to gauge the talent of these girls."**

**"Apology accepted." Wave Man nodded and then gestured to Crystal Bot. "Come on now, let's not keep everyone else waiting any longer."**

**"Yes, Wave Man!" she answered her leader obediently. "Let's play some more when I get back, okay you guys?"**

**Again Splash Woman shook her head. "I'm afraid that I have to be going soon."**

**"Don't worry, we can still practice." Roll offered.**

**"Okay, I'm holding you to it!"**

**- From Chapter 13 again:**

**The girl-bot stared at him, then turned her gaze to the floor, stuttering a barely audible, "Thank you". For just one brief moment she looked back up at Dr. Light, but found herself unable to look at him. She ran out of the room, leaving the other six in the lounge confused.**

**"What was that?" Megaman asked, astounded. "Is she alright?"**

**"That may have been one of the glitches I was talking about." Dr. Light mentioned sadly. "It's very hard for her to have a greater emotional range when she doesn't have the ability to comprehend emotions."**

**Bass facepalmed, thoroughly embarrassed by her behavior. He began to wonder if it was a good idea to let Crystal Bot meet Dr. Light in the first place. "Ugh, I'll get her."**

"Okay, that first scene there I sort of like, as it shows the nature of Team 5 dynamics." Grimm explained. "But the problem is, it weighed down an action chapter without adding enough to the plot. That, and it was just simpler to have Team 5 come in and then explain their actions later. For the second, I really wanted to show all of the girl-bots interacting together, but the scene was just too darn corny, and it was an unnecessary plot delay. I did, however, like how Splash Woman was very matronly over the others, despite the fact that Roll is way older than her. You'll probably see Splash Woman at some point during the series, but I can't say when, because I'm not sure. As for the third, well, I was going to have Crystal Bot freak out at the sight of Dr. Light's condition, but I really didn't like having to hurt Dr. Light. That and I like her motives being mysterious for a bit, so that you might think that Bass was right and Crystal was stealing stuff. Reactions from y'all?"

"I'm really glad you didn't have her make a scene like that." Bass said. "She was embarrassing enough just running away."

"Aw, I miss not having the band." Roll smiled. "I would love to start something like that."

"I know!" Crystal Bot exclaimed. "But all of us are just so busy!

"The Digital Sweethearts?" Mega Man asked. "That's a cute name. What kind of music would you play?"

"Heavy metal!" Crystal Bot squealed.

"No way." Roll snorted jovially. "Maybe pop rock. Or alternative. Or maybe we'd just do a lot of genres, whatever we felt like."

"Alright then." GrimMoody went on. "Next question, for anyone who wants to answer. How do you feel about the end of Okkusenman? Hopes for the next story?"

"I like it a lot." Mega Man answered. "Except I'm sort of sad that Bass left. It would be nice to have some help defeating Cain."

"Whine about it, why don't you?" Bass scoffed.

Mega Man rolled his eyes and continued. "I'm not too worried about it, though. For the next story, I just hope everything gets resolved quickly, and I'm glad we're going to see more of Proto Man in the plot. I haven't seen him in a long time."

"I liked the plot." Roll answered. "I just hope I get to do more in the next story...and that Dr. Light somehow lives."

"I don't like it at all." Crystal Bot complained. "Well, I like working for Forte-kun and knowing the truth about Crystal Man, but...but can't you make him come back? Please?"

"Eh, the story is alright...I like not answering to Wily..." Bass answered, his voice becoming more sinister. "Did you really have to make it so that Rock rescues me? Do you have any clue how humiliating that is?"

"Sure do." Grimm replied coolly. "Why do you think I did it?"

"I can't believe this...just make it so I don't do anything stupid in the next story."

"I promise nothing."

"I hate you."

"I can live with that." GrimMoody turned back to the camera. "Okay, we're running out of time here on the Bonus Feature show, so I have here one last clip. Unlike the others, it's not a deleted scene, but rather a scene that just had no place in the story, but I really like it, so y'all are going to get to see it. This should properly go between chapters 11 and 12.

**"Annie, we've got a problem..."**

**A small blonde, one of the nurses who worked in Monstropolis Peace Street Hospital, looked concerned as she went over to her supervisor. The petite woman nervously called over a taller Hispanic woman, the nurse in charge and apparently Anita.**

**"What's going on, Hannah?" Anita said, her voice instantly reminding everyone in the waiting room of a mother.**

**"It's the robot from yesterday. You know, the one that broke in here."**

**Anita frowned. In her opinion, the hospital was almost a sacred place, and she didn't want anyone disturbing her patients. If she hadn't had the previous day off, she believed that none of that nonsense would have happened. "Here, come out to the hall. Okay, you mean that robot Bass, right?"**

**"That's the one. He's here right now, and instead of breaking in, he actually wants to sign in."**

**"Who is he looking for?"**

**"It's the same as yesterday: Dr. Light!"**

**Anita shook her head. She was liking this less and less. "I know what was on the news, but no. He might say he's a good guy now, but we don't know that for sure. Especially since a young man came in yesterday claiming that Bass had attacked him. The boy had severe front skull fracturing! I don't want that robot in my hospital until I know for sure that he's safe. Which probably won't be for a long time."**

**Nurse Hannah cringed a moment, but nodded, agreeing. "Okay, but um, could you be the one to tell him? He's...kind of scary."**

**The higher ranking nurse didn't judge Hannah. "Yes, I should do it. If he's any kind of good guy at all, he'll leave without an argument."**

**As the two went over to the front desk, they were both surprised to find out that Bass was nowhere to be seen. The receptionist, a petite and friendly woman named Aneesha, was calmly speaking to someone over the phone, completely unpeturbed. She finished the call as the nurses approached.**

**"Aneesha," Anita began. "Wasn't there a robot here that wanted to come in?"**

**"Oh, you mean Bass?" the receptionist answered without missing a beat. "He's so cool! I even got his autograph!"**

**Hannah was shocked. "But...you let him in?"**

**"Sure I did. I mean, there's not much time left in visiting hours, but he really wanted to see Dr. Light. Think we could let him have a little extra time? He is a celebrity and all."**

**Anita facepalmed.**

**Bass wasn't sure he wanted to come back to the hospital. Getting in without breaking in had been easy enough, but as he approached Dr. Light's room, he found himself apprehensive. All the same, it was something that had to be done eventually. And Bass did feel sorry for the good doctor, as well as having a lot of questions for him.**

**As he walked, he noticed that his left arm was somewhat loose. He started to think it would have been better to get repaired from the fight at Skull Island before coming. But he liked it better this way. Mega Man, Team 5, and Team 9 were still on their way back from the island. Most of them had come out moderately damaged, but since Bass himself hadn't fared terribly, he merely teleported out and let Mega Man figure out what to do with everyone. He liked it better that no one would know that he was here. **

**He entered the hospital room, peeking in first. As he suspected, Dr. Light was asleep. Figuring he had some time, Bass went ahead and sat down. There was a book on the table beside the bed, a rather thick one. It was a book that Bass hadn't heard of before, called ****The Philosophy Masters: Soren Kirkegaarde****. It was apparently a book in a series. Thinking he had nothing better to do for the time being, he picked it up and started reading.**

**"Don't lose my place."**

**Bass looked over to see Dr. Light, awake and looking at him with mild surprise. "I wasn't that loud was I?"**

**"Not at all, I just wasn't very asleep." Dr. Light sat up. "Back so soon? What happened with Rock?"**

**The dark robot lay the book back where it had been, realizing that Dr. Light wouldn't know the outcome of that fight. He pretended he wasn't nervous as he turned his head away. "Eh...well, thing is...I decided to be merciful, because I'm just that kind of person. After all, Rock protects the city and all that...not that I **_**can't **_**defeat him, of course, but well...he doesn't, um, deserve it. Yeah."**

**Even though he wasn't looking, Bass could sense the smile in Dr. Light's voice. "So why are you back here then?"**

**"See...well, a lot of stuff happened today in your lab, and I thought you might want to know about it. That, and I was thinking about it, and Wily is a bastard, so I...made a change in career. The whole 'good guy' thing looks, eh, sort of interesting. I thought I might try it for a while. I was hoping...maybe you'd have some advice for me or something, I don't know. You seem sort of smart. Well, for a guy who created a dweeb like Rock."**

**Bass glanced at the doctor, gauging his reaction. To his surprise, Dr. Light was beaming.**

**"I'm so proud of you, Bass."**

**The former Wily-bot was taken aback. He had no clue that Dr. Light would say something like that, or that it would have such an affect on him. Bass started to think that this had been one of his better ideas.**

"Awwwww..." Roll squealed, who was not only surprised but also making the most of the moment to torture the dark robot. "That's so sweet!"

"Why?" Bass acted as if he'd been punched in the gut. "Why did you have to post that? There was a reason I did that in secret."

"What's wrong with that?" Mega Man asked. "It's about time we saw your good side."

"AWWWW!" Crystal Bot joined in. "I always knew Forte-kun was nice! He's such a sweetheart!"

"My reputation is ruined..."

"No way, this makes you look a lot kinder than before." Mega Man tried to make him feel better. "You're a real person, not just a fighter."

"Okay, now I'm going to be sick." Bass glared at the blue bomber before turning to glare also at GrimMoody. "Don't you care about my reputation at all?"

"Nope!" the author exclaimed bluntly. "Alright folks, that's all the time we have for Bonus Features, and thanks for reading! See y'all in the sequel!

\\\\\

Fyi, The Philosophy Masters: Soren Kirkegaarde is not a real book, but Soren Kirkegaarde is a real philosopher, if you're interested in that sort of thing.


End file.
